Turkey Meatballs | You've Got Meal!

We stopped at this recipe one of these day just before our cooking inspiration was close to zero. You know those days when you have no special cravings, no idea what to cook and you just stare at your fridge and freezer, but no option satisfies you.

We got lucky when we spotted a large piece of turkey breast in the freezer. Turkey meat is a nice and lean meat that is very versatile. If you find the meat dull and you have a bigger piece it is a great idea to grind it or part of it for meatballs or burgers to get a great flavor. It is easier to add the flavor you want in meatballs or burgers.

That being said, we used about 600 grams of ground turkey and made some nice meatballs and served them with mashed sweet potatoes and some pickled cauliflower.

You will need:

• 600 g ground turkey
• 1 small onion, finely chopped or grated
• 2 carrots, grated
• 2 eggs
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3/4 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 tbs salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 handful chopped fresh parsley

For the mashed sweet potatoes:

• 1 large sweet potato
• 2 medium potatoes (basically you need to have a 50/50 ratio of potatoes and sweet potatoes)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 50 g butter
• 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1. Mix all the meatball ingredients in a large bowl and form balls from about 1 tbsp of composition.
2. Heat 2-3 tbsp olive oil in a skillet and fry the meatballs on all sides, about 7 minutes , until brown.
3. You can take them out on a paper towel to remove excess oil.
4. For the mash, boil the potatoes, mash them, add the butter, ginger and the seasoning and mix well.

Enjoy,

Meatball Madness (II) Italian Style Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Meatball madness! What? Again? You can't escape the madness! Especially when you have a lot of them hanging in your fridge, in wich case you can make them shine again with an easy and super delicious sauce. 

Now, the results of the original madness were some meatballs with a definite sweet touch, so I wanted to make a more sour sauce. 

Ingredients: 

the juice of 4 big, ripe, red tomatoes(just use a grater), 
1 medium onion, 
2 garlic cloves, 
200 ml of red wine, 
250 grams of tiny cherry and plum tomatoes, both red and yellow, 
half a handfull of basil leaves, 
salt and pepper

Saute the diced onion and garlic in some olive oil, add the wine and let the liquid reduce by half. Next put in the tomato juice and the tomatoes, chopped basil, salt, pepper and bring to a simmer on low heat, pop in the meatballs and cook with a lid on for about half an hour. a very simple but great tasting sauce that brings a wonderfull zing to the meatballs, so get your madness on and start cooking those meatballs.

Enjoy,

Meatballs Madness (I) Meatballs with Ricotta and Sun-dried Tomatoes

Did you ever think about who was the first person who thought of saying meatball madness? Who ever saw an indefinite amount of meatballs and screamed: This is madness! I keep imagining some 17th century dude, in his tight pants, being absolutely bedazzled by the sight of meatballs. So, with that image in mind, I decided I need to have  reason to say meatball madness, thereforeI had to cook some tasty  beef meatballs. 

I used: 

• 500 grams of minced beef, 
• 1 medium onion, finely diced, 
• 3 cloves of garlic, 
• 150 grams of ricotta cheese,  
• 100 grams of sun dried tomatoes and about 3 tbs of the oil they were kept in, 
• parsley,  
• thyme, 
• 2 eggs, 
• flour, 
• salt, 
• pepper, 
• some oil for cooking. 

Just mix all the ingredients together really well, except the flour. 

Make sure the onion, tomatoes, garlic and herbs are all finely chopped,  so you can mix then evenly.  Add the flour to thicken the composition, I used around 150 grams, both for putting it in the meat and for lightly flouring the meatballs. Heat up some olive oil on medium high heat, and fry you golf ball size meatballs until golden brown on all sides,  shouldn't take long. 

As a side dish, I just boiled some delicious,  fresh green beans and seasoned them as mentioned here. 

This meatball recipe, with  definite Italian influences is light, fresh and a delicious way to bring some ordinary and common meatballs to the next level. The ricotta make them moist and very light. There is definitely gonna be a next time cooking these.

Enjoy,