Whipping up breakfast in Barcelona

We were very lucky to have a little apartment in Barcelona with a well equiped kitchen, and even a teeny-tiny little balcony that opened up and looked out onto Las Ramblas. When we arrived, it was coming into Easter weekend ... We were fortunate enough to think that through, and ventured out on Saturday to stock the fridge. What we hauled home you'd think the easter holidays ran for a whole week, and that we were feeding 7 people, but that's beside the point.

We barely make it through the afternoon before we crack into the stash. Chickpeas that are in a rich tomato & herb liquid, pepperdews filled with cheese & some baby chorizos along with a slab of pure honeycomb and an artesian goat's cheese.

Sunday is for sleeping in, as well as big hearty home-cooked breakfasts! We fry a few eggs and place them on some toasted sliced bread, along with some trompet & morel mushrooms which we have simply sauteed in butter and some little fried pork sausages. Oh, what a surprise these were! Tiny little chipolata's that were specked with fresh black truffle. A very decadent breakfast indeed ...

Panzanella

Niseko in summer ... beautiful. The abundance of vibrant fresh vegetables ... amazing !!



After a stop at the bakery we had a bag full of bread ... we then stopped at Viewplaza where we were so inspired by what we saw and decided on a panzanella for dinner. With another couple of bags full of vegetables, and a baby basil plant we were set.



The bread was chopped, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper before being toasted in the oven until golden. All of the other fresh veggies were washed and chopped.



The dressing was made from wine vinegar, chopped garlic, lemon juice, dijon mustard and seasoned with salt and pepper and a good splash of virgin oil was mixed through.



The salad, bread and dressing were all combined before we settled into the couch to enjoy this simple, but extraordinary combination.



Summer Panzanella

1 loaf of bread, cut into cubes
3 large tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 Spanish onion
2 garlic cloves
3-4 baby peppers (capsicum) in various colours
Dijon mustard
Caperberries
salt
pepper
olive oil
Picked baby basil leaves

1. Toss the bread cubes in olive oil, salt and pepper. Toast at 170C until golden brown.
2. Wash and prepare vegetables. Cut tomato, cucumber and peppers into cubes.
3. Peel and slice red onion into long, thin slices.
4. Cut a few caperberries in half.
5. Make dressing by chopping the garlic clove. Add to bowl with lemon juice, vinegar, salt & pepper before slowly mixing in olive oil.
6. Toss all ingredients in a bowl with the dressing, and finish with picked baby basil.

Simply pork and cottage cheese meatballs

Well back after some great holidays, but for us it's also great to be able to cook for ourselves as well.

This is a recipe from Simply recipes who makes us so hungry each time we read the blog. After we read the ricotta meatball blog we knew what we were having for dinner and after a bit of shopping we were armed with the goods.

With the preparation done, our two bowls of stuff were ready to go

The bread cubes were mixed into the mince and seasonings, then the eggs and ricotta (well, cottage cheese in our case, still delicious just maybe not as rich) were added to the mince.

First visit to the oven, until they were golden.

Before being rolled around a little ...

and covered in tomato sauce.

Summer salad greens from viewplaza,

and a pot of soft white polenta

and what a great dinner !! Sometimes one of the greatest pleasure is just being able to cook and eat at home!

Good use of the Gourmet Traveller! and the dinner table was set.



We served the meatballs over soft white polenta, which is a type of corn meal, super tasty!

Pork Ricotta Meatballs in Tomato Sauce Recipe

adapted from Simply Recipes.com

Ingredients
300g ground pork mince
300g beef mince

80g cured Japanese pork product (not exactly sure what it was, but it looked and tasted delicious!)
1 loaf soft & fresh white bread, cubed, crusts removed first
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 tub of cottage cheese
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Olive oil
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

if fresh basil is not available, add a tablespoon of dried basil to the tomatoes before adding to the meatballs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Method
1 In a large bowl, add the pork, beef mince, unidentifiable cure pork productand bread cubes, parsley, oregano, fennel, red pepper flakes, and salt. Use your hands to mix until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Do not over-work.

2 Whisk the beaten eggs and cottage cheese together in a separate bowl until there are no more large clumps of ricotta. Pour into the bowl of the meat mixture. Mix with your hands until just incorporated. Again, do not over-mix.

If you want, to test seasoning, you can take a small bit of the mix, form into a patty, and heat in a small skillet on the stovetop until cooked through. Depending on how this test patty tastes to you, add more herbs, chili, or salt to taste to the meat mixture. Keep meat mixture in refrigerator while doing this.

3 Preheat oven to 200°C. Coat the bottom of a large roasting pan with olive oil. Form meatballs in your hand, about 1 1/2-inches in diameter, using about 3 Tbsp of the mixture to form each meatball. Arrange in pan so there is some space between them. If too crowded they will steam and not brown.

4 Roast meatballs in the oven for about 30 minutes, turning the meatballs after about 20 minutes, until the meatballs are beginning to brown.

5 Remove pan from oven. Use a metal spatula to dislodge meatballs from being stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the crushed tomatoes to the pan. Carefully cover the pan with aluminum foil (carefully because the pan is still hot!) Return the pan to the oven. Lower the heat to 150°C. Cook for an additional hour to 1 1/2 hours.

Sprinkle basil into sauce before serving.

Makes about 24 meatballs.

Serves 5-6.

Soft White polenta Recipe

1/2 c white polenta
2 1/2 c milk
Parmasean
Salt & white pepper
Knob of butter

Bring the milk to the boil, sprinkle the polenta into the milk while stirring (you need to sprinkle and stir rather than just dump it in to avoid lumps).
Cook out for about five minutes untill the polenta has thickened up enough to hold the stirring lines.
Finish off by stirring in the knob of butter, a good whack of grated parmesan and salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

With any left over polenta, spread onto a flat tray and let set over night. The next day cut into chips and grill or deep fry. Yummy!

We enjoyed the rest of our meatballs the next day in a crust baguette with shredded cabbage. Yum!