James spotted this book at a friend’s house and browsed through it while they were making him some dinner. He fell in love instantly and texted me to say that I had to buy the Bowler’s Meatball Cookbook by Jez Felwick as it was full of delicious recipes. He was right.
Despite the title, the book covers meatballs, fishballs and vegballs, so is friendly to your pescatarian and vegetarian friends. It also covers a range of sauces and condiments to go with your [x]balls so you can have a great eating experience. It’s published in the UK, so some of the ingredients are a little more difficult to obtain than others, but that said, the balls I made were great, and I want to make them again. I learnt the important lesson (again) of following instructions so that recipes are more successful. Overall I give this 5 out of 5 stars, and I certainly want to cook from this book at the earliest opportunity.
Green Chilli Chicken Balls
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 8 fresh green chillies, seeds removed, finely chopped
- 1 x 4cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
- 20 cashew nuts
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped coriander, plus extra leaves to garnish
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 750g chicken thigh mince
- 2 teaspoons Garam Masala
- 150g breadcrumbs
- 2 teaspoons salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- lime wedges, to serve
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 220C and line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
- Heat the oil in a large heavy-based pan. Add the onion and cook on a low heat for 2 minutes. Add the garlic, chillies, ginger and cashew nuts and cook on a low heat for 3 more minutes, or until the onion is translucent.
- Remove from the heat, allow to cool a little, then put into a food processor with the coriander and blitz to a rough paste. You might have to add a splash of olive oil or water to help it blend properly. Beat the eggs with the milk in a large bowl, then add the paste, minced chicken, garam masala, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper and mix well.
- Heat a small frying pan over high heat. Break off a small amount of the mixture, flatter between your fingers and fry until cooked. Tate to check the seasoning and add more salt and spices if necessary. Form the mixture into 20 – 22 meatballs, about 5cm in diameter, packing each one firmly, and place them on the prepared baking tray.
- Bake for 15 – 18 minutes, turning them halfway through – the balls should begin to brown on top. Keep an eye on them to make sure that they don’t get burnt underneath.
- Serve with Coconut Curry Sauce (see below) and steamed jasmine rice with lime wedges on the side.
Notes on this recipe:
- These were really good. Mouthgasmically good in fact. They were apparently really good in a sandwich the next day, and they were hard to stop eating that night. The spice blend in the meatballs worked perfectly.
Brown Rice and Red Lentil Balls
Ingredients:
- 100g red lentils
- olive oil
- 3 banana shallots, finely sliced
- 2 spring onions, finely sliced
- 2 garlic clove, crushed
- 120g pine nuts, toasted
- 300g cooked brown rice, cooled (150g uncooked)
- 2 teaspoons thyme, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons basil, finely chopped
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 1 egg
- 100g breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 220C and line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
- Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Add the lentils, bring back to the boil and skim off the white foamy starch which will rise to the surface. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the lentils are soft but haven’t started to disintegrate. Drain in a sieve and leave to cool.
- Meanwhile, heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and add the shallots and the white part of the spring onions. Stir-fry over a medium heat for 2 minutes, then add the garlic and cook until the onions are translucent.
- Place the toasted pine nuts in a large clean tea towel and bash them with the back of a wooden spoon to break them.
- Beat the egg in a large bowl, then add all the other ingredients and mix with your hands until well combined. Form the mixture into 16 balls each, 5cm in diameter, packing each one firmly and place them on the prepared baking tray.
- Bake the balls for 15 – 20 minutes, turning the tray round halfway through – the balls should begin to brown on top. Keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn underneath.
Notes on this recipe:
- I stuffed up and didn’t crush the pine nuts, so these were a little more fragile than required. I really enjoyed the texture and taste of them though, the herbs, lentils, rice and nuts were a great combination.
- We used the same sauce (which I vegetarianised) for this dish too.
Coconut Curry Sauce
[no photo, see other photos]
Ingredients:
Paste
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeeds
- 10 fresh green Thai bird’s-eye chillies, seeds removed, chopped
- 2 banana shallots, roughly chopped
- 1 x 3cm piece of fresh ginger or galangal
- 3 medium lemongrass stems, tough ends and outer layer removed, chopped
- 3 lime leaves
- 3 tablespoons chopped coriander
- 1 teaspoon shrimp paste
- 1 teaspoon Thai fish sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon ground nut oil
- 1 tablespoon paste (above)
- 400ml coconut milk
- 2 teaspoons palm sugar
- 1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce
- juice of 1 lime
- 2 lime leaves or zest of 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon Thai basil leaves, chopped into slivers
Method:
- Heat a heavy-based, non-stick frying pan over a medium heat until it begins to smoke. Add the coriander and cumin seeds, shaking the pan constantly until they give off a nice aroma and begin to pop. Once this happens, remove from the heat and pour them onto a plate to cool. When the spices are cool, grind them to a powder using a pestle and mortar.
- Put the rest of the paste ingredients into a food processor, add the ground seeds and pulse to make a paste.
- Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the pate and cook for 2 minutes, then add the coconut milk, stir to combine and bring to a simmer.
- Add the palm sugar, fish sauce, lime juice and lime leaves. Taste, and balance the sweet, sour and salty with a little more palm sugar, lime and fish sauce as required. Simmer for 10 minutes, remove from the heat, stir in the Thai basil and serve.
Notes on this recipe:
- To make this curry paste vegetarian, substitute the fish sauce and shrimp paste with salt.
- It makes a lot of curry paste. We put the extra in a jar and have already used it when making a thai curry. It’s a good paste.
- We ended up using Thai red bird’s-eye chillies as we couldn’t find any green ones at the time. It means that the paste was a bit more brown than green.
- It’s a REALLY tasty sauce.
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