​Where should I start? Meatballs, as simple as it is, it's one of those dishes that I have a love-hate relationship with. 

I tried to make meatballs possibly two times and both were not good ones. Consistency was good but the seasoning part is where I always make a mistake. Unfortunately, meatballs, like burger patties, you won't really know if you did the seasoning right, until it's cooked. I guess you can still salvaged it but for avid cooks like me, that's just masking the error. At the end of the day, it still means the seasoning was not done right.

This time around, I was able to do it right, well at least half way. I tell you why it was half way. I bought a ready-to-cook Italian sausage. Just because in Dubai, Italian ground sausage somehow is not easy to find. I had to improvised. That being said, it still means I had to play around with the seasoning because the Italian sausage that I got is already seasoned and I have to mix it with an unseasoned ground beef. So it was still a success, albeit half way.

Tip 1: This is exactly how my meaty meat sauce was done, without the meat since this has meatballs
Tip 2: If you have a sauce that your family particularly like, you can just add the meatballs part to up the ante
Tip 3: Get your kiddos involved. Sure there will be funny shapes, it won't be uniform but you and they will have fun.

Ingredients for the meatballs:
3 slices white bread, crusts removed and diced
2/3 cup cold water
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ready to cook Spicy Italian Sausage (taken out from casings)
1/4 cup grated parmegiano regiano
6 cloves garlic, minced finely
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1-2 tablespoons white sugar (depending on your preference)
1 large egg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour to dredge meatballs
Light olive oil to saute

Ingredients for the sauce
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium green capsicum, diced
2 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (8-ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
​1 tbsp Italian Seasoning (ready made or make your own)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp sugar (to cut the acidity, especially good with young eaters, but if they are very much into the authentic Italian sauce, no need to add sugar)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water

Instruction for the meatballs:
​1. Place bread pieces in a small bowl, add cold water and soak for at least 5 minutes then mashed with fork
2. In large mixing bowl, add beef, pork sausage, parmegiano regiano, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, egg and mashed bread. Mix until well combined.
3. Form into 1 inch meatballs (about half a scoop of ice cream), but if you want big meatballs, oh please go big by all means!
4. Dredge/roll meatballs in flour, dust off excess flour
5. Heat a large skillet over medium heat with 3-4 tablespoons olive oil.
6. Add meatballs in batches without crowding the pan. Saute until brown on all sides (turn every minute). Don't worry about not cooking the them through, it will be cooked fully when it's added to the sauce.
7. Set aside

At this point, if you followed the size of my meatballs, it should actually be cooked through by this time. The one you should worry about are your kids stealing them before you are able to make the sauce. 

Instruction for the sauce:
1. In the same pan, saute onion and capsicum in butter and oil, until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute 30 more seconds.
3. Add tomato paste, sauce and stewed tomatoes, seasonings and water.
4. Simmer for 15 minutes. 
5. Add the meatballs
6. ​Simmer for another 15 minutes.

I have to confess, because I made small meatballs, I did not add them all into the sauce (thinking I will make more sauce later on). The problem with that was, my kids ate the ones not in the sauce when I went to work. Apparently, according to my nanny, they ate it with rice and were even fighting over it. 

That for me is a clear translation of success.

Happy Eating!!!

I'm not kidding, it is as easy as counting up to 5!

Tip 1: I love panchetta and I usually add them to any dish that calls for bacon, or just to up the ante for any stir fry veggie
Tip 2: Please only use the real deal parmigiano reggiano. I will not recommend using a substitute or the powdered in a bottle one. I have made a mistake of buying one before, never again.
Tip 3: Have everything ready. Mis-en-place you all! I might be an organised chaos lady but I usually have my ingredients arranged according to its order of use.
Tip 4: Cut the ingredients in half if there's only 4 of you. We're only 5 but my Jason eats for 3. No lying, he ate 3 plateful of this for dinner and even had the left over for lunch the next day.

Ingredients: 
500 grams spaghetti
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups grated Parmigiano Reggiano
4 slices of streaky bacon, diced
154 grams of panchetta (small pack)
8 garlic cloves
Freshly ground black pepper
​Salt

Serves 8

Instructions:
Cook pasta as per package instructions. Drain and reserve a cup of pasta water.

In a medium size bowl, whisk eggs. Once done, add grated Parmegiano and combine with fork. 

Slowly add a tablespoon of pasta water into the egg and cheese mixture, one at a time.  2-3 tablespoons is a good ratio to bring the temperature up. This is to temper the egg and ensure it does not cook as scrambled egg later on. 

In a frying pan, fry your bacon and panchetta on its own fat. If you only have bacon, just double the amount and you are good to go. Once it's brown, depending on how cook you like your bacon bits. Fish it out of the pan and set aside.

Use the fat in the pan to fry the minced garlic. Once it becomes fragrant, add pasta.

Switch the flame off and move the pan to the unused stove top. You will finish cooking your carbonara using the residual heat. This will also ensure your egg does not get scrambled.

Slowly add the egg mixture and quickly toss pasta and egg continuously until pasta is well coated. 

Add more pasta water to achieve the sauce consistency you prefer.

Add the bacon and panchetta bits, pepper and a little bit of salt. I use my Himalayan salt to complete this dish, not too much though because panchetta is salty enough. Serve hot! 

You can add parsley, or other type of herb you feel like having.

Happy Eating!

As I said from the first Spaghetti Challenge issue, Super Meaty Spaghetti, this combination can either wow you or repulse you! 

Tip 1: You should cover your panini or sandwich press with aluminum foil.
Tip 2: The more meat in the filling, the better 

Ingredients:
3 garlic cloves, pressed
slices of bread
shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions:
Place butter and garlic in a small bowl. Cover it with clingfilm before melting the butter in the microwave.

Brush both sides of the bread and toast.
​
Top the bread with cheddar cheese. Add spaghetti and meat. Put more cheese on top. Top with second piece of the bread.

Finish it off in a griddle or panini press. 2 minutes each side to ensure the the cheese has melted.

Slice it in half and voila! no more left-over!

I have been meaning to resurrect my blogging which means resurrect my relationship with the kitchen and what better way but to put myself on a challenge.

I thought, why not make as many spaghetti dishes as possible?

Who does not like pasta? One might not love pasta but for sure like it on some level. Actually, I do not know anyone who does not eat pasta at all!

So here we are on my 1st week of Spaghetti Challenge and I decided to do a super meaty sauce that calls for minced chicken, beef and pork. The result was yum!

So far so good. Now I'm all hyped up and excited to think of what variation I will go for next week! 

Tip 1: if you are to create one of the ingredient, then please do it before you start cooking
Tip 2: if you would like your spaghetti with lots of meat, then by all means, increase the quantity of your meat.
Tip 3: if you do not like sugar, then just add one tablespoon. By the way, sugar is a natural food enhancer. I don't use MSG in my cooking but do use sugar from time to time. 

Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 lb minced chicken
1/2 lb minced beef
1/2 lb minced pork
1 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium green capsicum, diced
2 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (8-ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
​1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water

Servings: Perfect for 500 grams of pasta.

Instructions:
Brown the meat in a heavy bottomed pot.

Add onion and capsicum and saute until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute 30 more seconds.

Add tomato paste, sauce and stewed tomatoes, seasonings and water.

​Simmer for 30 minutes.

While this sauce is simmering, in a separate pot, cook spaghetti according to packet instructions.

Personal preference:
I like to keep the sauce and pasta separate. I get a pan and just mix as many pasta to sauce or vice versa I like. That way I can make it spicy if I want to or keep it as is depending on my mood. 

This is what I did with the left over... either you will love it or you will be disgusted. Nothing in between!

Happy Eating!!!