You can't balls these up
32 METRO Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Life&Style food
with Chloe Scott @ChloeScottM
chloe’s recipe ingredients serves 4
You can’t balls these up OLI JONES
Chloe Scott tests top recipes to cook the ultimate meatballs
‘W
hen the public goes into a frenzy over something like a meatball, it may be annoying to us jaded foodie observers but a meatball can be a damn good thing.’ So says chef and food writer Anthony Bourdain – and he’s right. While an enormous dry meatball is underwhelming, a moist and flavoursome one is an exciting experience. Which is why you’ll find office workers in India eating them as koftas, Stockholmers ordering köttbullar with lingonberries and New Yorkers chowing on Italian meatballs with spaghetti. The quality of meat and choice of animal – pig, cow, bird, sheep, deer – means there are almost infinite possibilities. I need to narrow down my choices for testing and beef with pork is the classic combination. I also try beef on its own, as recommended in Omar Allibhoy’s albóndigas en salsa in Tapas Revolution (Ebury), and a veal/pork blend from the polpette recipe in Jacob Kenedy’s Bocca cookbook (Bloomsbury) but I find these beef-only ones miss the pork fat. It’s worth noting that Chez Panisse chef Alice Waters makes hers with beef and minced pork shoulder, a joint with a generous helping of delicious collagen. As meatballs are traditionally food for working folk, I like the plain old beef (chuck cut) with pork, especially as the veal/pork version I make loses the benefits of rose veal’s sophisticated flavour and texture. There are plenty of theories about how to get the heady lustrous texture we all hanker for. I don’t like meatballs that break apart on cooking, or
METHOD Step 1 The
Full circle: The classic round meatball is made up of beef and pork – but there are plenty of variations on the theme equally dry ones. Both Kenedy and Allibhoy soak bread in milk to address this. Egg is used by everyone from the late Marcella Hazan to modern lads Pizza Pilgrims. Both techniques are useful binding mechanisms. If you’re using one kilo of meat and bread with milk, just one small egg encourages tenderness. Another option is to include bone marrow. I’m sceptical but including a single teaspoon results in a bewitching depth of flavour. Spice-wise, look east and you’ll find cardamom, coriander seeds and turmeric in meatballs. More European is
parsley and sometimes nutmeg. I’ve heard of oregano and mint being sprinkled but I prefer simplicity, letting the meat sing for itself. Some swear by garlic, while others stick with onions – and some, such as Allibhoy, use both. Again, I find less is more. One clove of garlic, finely grated, doesn’t impose. On reading of Henry Dimbleby’s meatballs in Leon’s Family And Friends Cookbook I become intrigued about the cream cheese in the centre. It sounds odd and, alas, on sampling I don’t like the cream cheese one bit.
trend watch POLARI COCKTAILS Fancy a Bona Hoofer? Or a Naff Clobber? Stylistas such as British designers Giles Deacon, Katie Grand and DJ Princess Julia can all be found quaffing such cocktails at gold-lit wood-clad restaurant Hoi Polloi (www.hoi-polloi. co.uk), which has been rocking the capital since it opened last month. The fashion duo who run it, Pablo Flack and David Waddington, have named their cocktails using Polari, a near-extinct gay patois. A Bijou Basket (pictured above) is Sipsmith sloe gin, ginger wine and rhubarb bitters. Riah Shusher (a hairdresser in Polari) is a rhubarb and vanilla Tapatio Blanco Tequila mule. Bona Hoofer
500g lean minced beef ♦ 500g minced pork ♦ 100g nearly stale white bread, moistened in 60ml milk ♦ 1 small egg ♦ 120g Parmesan, finely grated ♦ 1 large handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped ♦ 1 garlic clove, grated ♦ 2tbsp extra virgin olive oil ♦ ½1tsp salt ♦ 1tsp bone marrow (optional) ♦ 1 large handful of basil leaves Tomato sauce: 2 x 400g tins tomatoes ♦ 50ml-100ml stock ♦ 1 small glass red wine ♦ 2 garlic cloves, crushed ♦ ½tsp sugar ♦ ½tsp salt ♦ 30ml extra virgin olive oil ♦ black pepper ♦ 1 dried chilli (optional)
(good dancer) is Sipsmith gin, toasted spiced syrup and espresso. And Naff Clobber (rubbish clothes)? It’s Buffalo Trace, Benedictine and maple syrup. Princess Julia (pictured right), a regular, explains the bar menu’s attraction: ‘I just love the descriptive innuendo that Polari conjures up, even if you don’t understand all the words the high drama and camp delivery is enough to get the gist of it.’ Hoi Polloi managing director Clive Gregory says the concept came about
Size matters. Bocca’s eight ‘tennis ball-sized monsters’ get a little dried out by muggins here. I’m not keen on walnut size because I want something a bit more impressive. Russell Norman, the man responsible for kickstarting the recent meatball mania in Britain, has a splendid pork and beef polpette recipe. In his book Polpo (Bloomsbury), he recommends large golf balls, a fine option. Everyone thinks their method of cooking the balls is best. I get the best results by frying rather than baking. It caramelises meatballs and brings out their sweet meatiness.
tomato sauce: In a large frying pan, add a glug of olive oil, then sizzle the crushed garlic. After a minute or so, pour in the wine and let it simmer off a little. Then pour in the tomatoes, salt, sugar, stock and chilli. Simmer on low heat for 40min to 1 hour, reducing to a rich sauce. Taste and season. Remove the garlic. Blend the sauce. Step 2 In a small bowl, combine the bread and milk. Set aside to soften. Squeeze most of the milk out and combine it with the beef and pork, egg, 100g Parmesan, parsley, garlic and the bone marrow if using (it’s easy to make: bake the bone for 30mins in the oven at 125C, then scrape it out). Season. Allow the mix to rest. Step 3 Test by cooking a tiny bit of the meat mix in a frying pan. Taste and add more seasoning if necessary. Form 12 large, round meatballs. Step 4 Add some olive oil to a frying pan on medium heat. Pop the balls in the pan, frying gently, making sure they caramelise evenly for about 10min. Pour the tomato sauce into the pan, pop the lid over and let it simmer on a low heat until they’re cooked. Step 5 Serve the balls and garnish with the remaining Parmesan and fresh basil leaves. Eat with bread, mash or spaghetti.
What’s new because ‘the theatre of the dining room is a perfect foil for the extravagance and camp of Polari’. Gregory, who helped develop the drinks’ names with Flack and Waddington, adds: ‘With the uninspiring modern trend for “cod” [naff] monikers, we wanted to use the camp language of Polari to create a modern drinks list that would inspire curiosity.’ It’s not a one-off. ‘We’ll continue to use Polari as the language of the Hoi Polloi cocktail list – the possibilities are fantabulosa.’
If you’re after seasonal coffee for the office, check out Union Roasted’s latest offering. The Winter Equinox Blend from El Salvador, Rwanda and Indonesia contains notes of brown sugar and Bakewell tart. Not only is this cuppa joe 100 per cent traceable but, refreshingly, Union Roasted sources its coffee direct from the grower and pays more than Fairtrade price. As a result, it develops long-term relationships with farmers. It’s £5.90 for 250g or £22.05 for 1kg from online coffee store www.unionroasted.com.
BUttered up Inspired by traditional production methods, Lurpak has a new butter out. The Slow Churned Butter is churned over five hours, making it rather tasty. It’s £2.30 and available from supermarkets.
Life&Style food
with Chloe Scott @ChloeScottM
chloe’s recipe ingredients serves 4
You can’t balls these up OLI JONES
Chloe Scott tests top recipes to cook the ultimate meatballs
‘W
hen the public goes into a frenzy over something like a meatball, it may be annoying to us jaded foodie observers but a meatball can be a damn good thing.’ So says chef and food writer Anthony Bourdain – and he’s right. While an enormous dry meatball is underwhelming, a moist and flavoursome one is an exciting experience. Which is why you’ll find office workers in India eating them as koftas, Stockholmers ordering köttbullar with lingonberries and New Yorkers chowing on Italian meatballs with spaghetti. The quality of meat and choice of animal – pig, cow, bird, sheep, deer – means there are almost infinite possibilities. I need to narrow down my choices for testing and beef with pork is the classic combination. I also try beef on its own, as recommended in Omar Allibhoy’s albóndigas en salsa in Tapas Revolution (Ebury), and a veal/pork blend from the polpette recipe in Jacob Kenedy’s Bocca cookbook (Bloomsbury) but I find these beef-only ones miss the pork fat. It’s worth noting that Chez Panisse chef Alice Waters makes hers with beef and minced pork shoulder, a joint with a generous helping of delicious collagen. As meatballs are traditionally food for working folk, I like the plain old beef (chuck cut) with pork, especially as the veal/pork version I make loses the benefits of rose veal’s sophisticated flavour and texture. There are plenty of theories about how to get the heady lustrous texture we all hanker for. I don’t like meatballs that break apart on cooking, or
METHOD Step 1 The
Full circle: The classic round meatball is made up of beef and pork – but there are plenty of variations on the theme equally dry ones. Both Kenedy and Allibhoy soak bread in milk to address this. Egg is used by everyone from the late Marcella Hazan to modern lads Pizza Pilgrims. Both techniques are useful binding mechanisms. If you’re using one kilo of meat and bread with milk, just one small egg encourages tenderness. Another option is to include bone marrow. I’m sceptical but including a single teaspoon results in a bewitching depth of flavour. Spice-wise, look east and you’ll find cardamom, coriander seeds and turmeric in meatballs. More European is
parsley and sometimes nutmeg. I’ve heard of oregano and mint being sprinkled but I prefer simplicity, letting the meat sing for itself. Some swear by garlic, while others stick with onions – and some, such as Allibhoy, use both. Again, I find less is more. One clove of garlic, finely grated, doesn’t impose. On reading of Henry Dimbleby’s meatballs in Leon’s Family And Friends Cookbook I become intrigued about the cream cheese in the centre. It sounds odd and, alas, on sampling I don’t like the cream cheese one bit.
trend watch POLARI COCKTAILS Fancy a Bona Hoofer? Or a Naff Clobber? Stylistas such as British designers Giles Deacon, Katie Grand and DJ Princess Julia can all be found quaffing such cocktails at gold-lit wood-clad restaurant Hoi Polloi (www.hoi-polloi. co.uk), which has been rocking the capital since it opened last month. The fashion duo who run it, Pablo Flack and David Waddington, have named their cocktails using Polari, a near-extinct gay patois. A Bijou Basket (pictured above) is Sipsmith sloe gin, ginger wine and rhubarb bitters. Riah Shusher (a hairdresser in Polari) is a rhubarb and vanilla Tapatio Blanco Tequila mule. Bona Hoofer
500g lean minced beef ♦ 500g minced pork ♦ 100g nearly stale white bread, moistened in 60ml milk ♦ 1 small egg ♦ 120g Parmesan, finely grated ♦ 1 large handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped ♦ 1 garlic clove, grated ♦ 2tbsp extra virgin olive oil ♦ ½1tsp salt ♦ 1tsp bone marrow (optional) ♦ 1 large handful of basil leaves Tomato sauce: 2 x 400g tins tomatoes ♦ 50ml-100ml stock ♦ 1 small glass red wine ♦ 2 garlic cloves, crushed ♦ ½tsp sugar ♦ ½tsp salt ♦ 30ml extra virgin olive oil ♦ black pepper ♦ 1 dried chilli (optional)
(good dancer) is Sipsmith gin, toasted spiced syrup and espresso. And Naff Clobber (rubbish clothes)? It’s Buffalo Trace, Benedictine and maple syrup. Princess Julia (pictured right), a regular, explains the bar menu’s attraction: ‘I just love the descriptive innuendo that Polari conjures up, even if you don’t understand all the words the high drama and camp delivery is enough to get the gist of it.’ Hoi Polloi managing director Clive Gregory says the concept came about
Size matters. Bocca’s eight ‘tennis ball-sized monsters’ get a little dried out by muggins here. I’m not keen on walnut size because I want something a bit more impressive. Russell Norman, the man responsible for kickstarting the recent meatball mania in Britain, has a splendid pork and beef polpette recipe. In his book Polpo (Bloomsbury), he recommends large golf balls, a fine option. Everyone thinks their method of cooking the balls is best. I get the best results by frying rather than baking. It caramelises meatballs and brings out their sweet meatiness.
tomato sauce: In a large frying pan, add a glug of olive oil, then sizzle the crushed garlic. After a minute or so, pour in the wine and let it simmer off a little. Then pour in the tomatoes, salt, sugar, stock and chilli. Simmer on low heat for 40min to 1 hour, reducing to a rich sauce. Taste and season. Remove the garlic. Blend the sauce. Step 2 In a small bowl, combine the bread and milk. Set aside to soften. Squeeze most of the milk out and combine it with the beef and pork, egg, 100g Parmesan, parsley, garlic and the bone marrow if using (it’s easy to make: bake the bone for 30mins in the oven at 125C, then scrape it out). Season. Allow the mix to rest. Step 3 Test by cooking a tiny bit of the meat mix in a frying pan. Taste and add more seasoning if necessary. Form 12 large, round meatballs. Step 4 Add some olive oil to a frying pan on medium heat. Pop the balls in the pan, frying gently, making sure they caramelise evenly for about 10min. Pour the tomato sauce into the pan, pop the lid over and let it simmer on a low heat until they’re cooked. Step 5 Serve the balls and garnish with the remaining Parmesan and fresh basil leaves. Eat with bread, mash or spaghetti.
What’s new because ‘the theatre of the dining room is a perfect foil for the extravagance and camp of Polari’. Gregory, who helped develop the drinks’ names with Flack and Waddington, adds: ‘With the uninspiring modern trend for “cod” [naff] monikers, we wanted to use the camp language of Polari to create a modern drinks list that would inspire curiosity.’ It’s not a one-off. ‘We’ll continue to use Polari as the language of the Hoi Polloi cocktail list – the possibilities are fantabulosa.’
If you’re after seasonal coffee for the office, check out Union Roasted’s latest offering. The Winter Equinox Blend from El Salvador, Rwanda and Indonesia contains notes of brown sugar and Bakewell tart. Not only is this cuppa joe 100 per cent traceable but, refreshingly, Union Roasted sources its coffee direct from the grower and pays more than Fairtrade price. As a result, it develops long-term relationships with farmers. It’s £5.90 for 250g or £22.05 for 1kg from online coffee store www.unionroasted.com.
BUttered up Inspired by traditional production methods, Lurpak has a new butter out. The Slow Churned Butter is churned over five hours, making it rather tasty. It’s £2.30 and available from supermarkets.
