I made this recipe from a suggestion on a recipe card by Sainsbury's. It didn't mention amounts so I just made it up - it seemed to work okay!
Ingredients:
Minced beef - I think the recipe card (I had cut the suggestion out) was aimed at 500g packets but we had around 350g for three people and it was enough
1 egg
1-2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1-2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
Olive oil, for frying
1 tsp garlic from a 'Fresh Herbs' tube (or squish your own)
Salt & pepper
1 tin chopped tomatoes
Handful fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp sugar
Method:
First mix all the beef together with the basil & first lot of parsley and the egg. Then separate enough for one person (or however many won't eat garlic & seasoning) into another bowl & set aside. Add the garlic and seasoning to the remaining bowl. Make meatballs out of both mixtures, keeping them separate.
Heat oil in frying pan and fry the seasoning-free meatballs first. Set aside. Then repeat with the others. I cooked until they were nearly done - we don't mind a bit of pink beef and they get cooked again later in the sauce.
To make the sauce, tip the can of tomatoes into the frying pan used for the meatballs (without cleaning it - unless you have a serious garlic/seasoning allergy then this should be okay and will add a little bit of flavour to the sauce). Add the sugar and the remaining parsley. Heat for a few minutes and stir thoroughly. Tip into a blender and pulverise.
When you want to eat, put the meatballs (all of them) back into the frying pan. I distinguished Dad's from ours by sticking a cocktail stick in each one. Pour the sauce over the top and heat everything together thoroughly whilst you cook some pasta. Serve.
Friday 5 November 2010
Recipe: Beetroot soup a la Dad.
I adapted this recipe from the New Covent Garden Food Company's 'Soup for all Occasions'. I think it worked because beetroot is such a flavoursome vegetable - I've even been asked to take the recipe into work for the head chef to make. I also made some croutons out of leftover bread to go with it - he liked these too.
Ingredients:
500g-ish raw beetroot, peeled and cubed (I used 450g)
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 medium/1 large potato, peeled and chopped
Half lemon, juice of
750ml boiling water
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsps olive oil
Method:
- Heat the oil in a pan, add the carrot and beetroot, then sweat for ten minutes until softened.
- Add the water, sugar and potato, then cover and simmer for forty minutes until vegetables are tender.
- Blend until smooth then stir in the lemon juice and more sugar if necessary (I didn't).
- Reheat and serve.
Ingredients:
500g-ish raw beetroot, peeled and cubed (I used 450g)
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 medium/1 large potato, peeled and chopped
Half lemon, juice of
750ml boiling water
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsps olive oil
Method:
- Heat the oil in a pan, add the carrot and beetroot, then sweat for ten minutes until softened.
- Add the water, sugar and potato, then cover and simmer for forty minutes until vegetables are tender.
- Blend until smooth then stir in the lemon juice and more sugar if necessary (I didn't).
- Reheat and serve.
This week: successes and failures.
This week's menu ran from Monday to Friday. On Monday we all had meatballs - Dad's adapted - Tuesday was chickpea curry, raita & papadums (us) and shepherd's pie (Dad). Wednesday was risotto all 'round - ours was lemon & feta and his was an experimental sausage version. Thursday and Friday were leftovers from Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
For lunch I made a beetroot and lemon soup. It lasted from Tuesday to Thursday (four large portions).
Successes?
Mum liked everything I made this week and Dad was keen on the meatballs and loved the soup.
Failures?
Well... Mum had a reaction to the papadums (her mouth started swelling up) so on Thursday she ate the curry with rice instead.
On Dad's front... he sulked. I don't know whether he genuinely didn't like the food or he didn't like eating separate meals (my mother's hypothesis). I was very careful not to put anything into the food he wouldn't eat - recipes to follow later - but that meant no onion, garlic or even seasoning. The shepherd's pie was 'okay' and he remained silent on the risotto although he isn't looking forward to eating it this evening. I gather that I put too much lemon flavouring in it for his liking - I didn't check it as I don't eat pork.
This week was far more painful than last week - and if I can remember what I made him then I'll make a post about that - possibly because he's realised this is not just a one-off. Vive la revolution!
For lunch I made a beetroot and lemon soup. It lasted from Tuesday to Thursday (four large portions).
Successes?
Mum liked everything I made this week and Dad was keen on the meatballs and loved the soup.
Failures?
Well... Mum had a reaction to the papadums (her mouth started swelling up) so on Thursday she ate the curry with rice instead.
On Dad's front... he sulked. I don't know whether he genuinely didn't like the food or he didn't like eating separate meals (my mother's hypothesis). I was very careful not to put anything into the food he wouldn't eat - recipes to follow later - but that meant no onion, garlic or even seasoning. The shepherd's pie was 'okay' and he remained silent on the risotto although he isn't looking forward to eating it this evening. I gather that I put too much lemon flavouring in it for his liking - I didn't check it as I don't eat pork.
This week was far more painful than last week - and if I can remember what I made him then I'll make a post about that - possibly because he's realised this is not just a one-off. Vive la revolution!
Wednesday 3 November 2010
How it began.
Just over a month ago I came home from university, penniless and jobless, to live with my parents. Two weeks ago I started, with the backing of my exasperated mother, the Food Revolution. Food has always been an integral - but strictly monitored - part of our lives. We - my parents, sister and I - eat as many meals together as possible and we all love food. My mother is an amazing cook and, since he retired seven years ago, my father has also done a lot of the day-to-day cooking.
My mother has several fatal food allergies and carries an epipen. My sister has a wheat intolerance - although she occasionally succumbs and eats a doughnut! - and my father is a whole other kettle of fish. I should preface by saying that I love him dearly and - in some aspects - he is ill. Unfortunately the list of food he believes himself intolerant/allergic (he uses these interchangeably) to grows and changes every year. Some of these banned substances do not produce a reaction from him if my desperate mother introduces them illicitly into the food and, when it comes to food he loves, he will blithely eat ingredients that he refuses on any other occasion.
The point at which I lost patience came when he declared he was allergic to bananas, a fruit that has put my mother into intensive care twice, which he has been eating with gusto for over fifty years. I was fed up of eating plain potatoes, plain carrots and a meat item (no seasoning, usually grilled). Given my unemployment and multitude of recipe books and a desire to actually taste something I put it to my mother that I could do what she, with her full-time job, can not - cook two menus.
This blog will document my attempts at providing meals for my father that subscribe to every single one of his food requests - sometimes adapting our recipes and sometimes sticking to cooking a separate meal. I have no real aim in mind but I think it will be a useful exercise to record and it would be good to have a record of recipes he'll actually eat.
My mother has several fatal food allergies and carries an epipen. My sister has a wheat intolerance - although she occasionally succumbs and eats a doughnut! - and my father is a whole other kettle of fish. I should preface by saying that I love him dearly and - in some aspects - he is ill. Unfortunately the list of food he believes himself intolerant/allergic (he uses these interchangeably) to grows and changes every year. Some of these banned substances do not produce a reaction from him if my desperate mother introduces them illicitly into the food and, when it comes to food he loves, he will blithely eat ingredients that he refuses on any other occasion.
The point at which I lost patience came when he declared he was allergic to bananas, a fruit that has put my mother into intensive care twice, which he has been eating with gusto for over fifty years. I was fed up of eating plain potatoes, plain carrots and a meat item (no seasoning, usually grilled). Given my unemployment and multitude of recipe books and a desire to actually taste something I put it to my mother that I could do what she, with her full-time job, can not - cook two menus.
This blog will document my attempts at providing meals for my father that subscribe to every single one of his food requests - sometimes adapting our recipes and sometimes sticking to cooking a separate meal. I have no real aim in mind but I think it will be a useful exercise to record and it would be good to have a record of recipes he'll actually eat.
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