Monday, February 1, 2010

Spaghetti With Meatball in Simple Tomato Sauce

After a long period of hesitance and delays, I feel that it is about time I get back on the road, of my blog, I mean.

As I have mentioned, one of my main hobbies is cooking. Despite getting a degree in Travel Industry Management, I never formally studied cooking. However, due to my interest and curiosity, I try to emulate and evolve methods and styles of cooking. Firstly, I used to watch my mother cook in the kitchen. She dishes out some of the best, and whose mum doesn't? Copying her cooking methods and recipes, adding to the fact that I was studying in Hawaii where I have to cook for myself, I started out with simple dishes and later on moved on as my confidence grew.

One of my favorite comfort food will be spaghetti with a simple tomato sauce. Actually, I can always substitute the spaghetti for any sort of pasta. Here's a simple recipe for Spaghetti with Meatball in Tomato Sauce:

Ingredients

One packet Spaghetti - cooked al-dente
1 medium onion - chopped
1/2 cup olive oil (Normal cooking oil is ok if you don't have olive oil)

A. Meatball Ingredients
500gm minced beef
1 medium sized onion (Indian or french is ok)
About 1 cup of breadcrumb (Better if you make it yourself)
Half cup of milk
Salt & Pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1 egg

B. Tomato Sauce

1 can of whole tomato in juice
2 cup of Beef/Chicken Stock
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of oregano
Salt & Pepper
1 teaspoon sugar

Making Meatball

1. Combine breadcrumbs with milk. Let the breadcrumb absorb the milk. If you make your own breadcrumb from bread, skip this part.
2. Place minced beef into a bowl, mix in onion, cumin, egg, salt, pepper and the breadcrumb and mix it all together. Do not over-knead them.
3.Using your hands, divide the combined mixture and roll them into medium sized balls. You can make between 10-12 meatbals, depending on size.
4. Set them aside to rest

The Sauce

1. Combine all the ingredients into a blender and blend them all into a smooth, slightly watery paste.

Heat oil in pan/wok
When the oil is hot enough, fry the meatballs, browning both sides.
Once done, place the meatballs into a bowl/plate with a napkin to absorb the oil
With the same oil, sautee the chopped onions until soft (or slightly brown if you wish)
Pour in the blended sauce and put the meatballs back into the pan/wok.
Let the sauce simmer for the next 15-20 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened up, depending on how thick you like your sauce to be.

Place spaghetti in a bowl or on a plate, pour in the sauce and meatballs.

Enjoy.

Note: I am not a chef or a certified gourmet/cook. My recipes will differ from professionals and definitely have no garnishings. Actually, I never believed in making food look good, i believe that we should let our ever-ready senses should do the work.

2 comments:

  1. Agree with you that's why if you see my postings on FB, it'll be zero for presentation. How the food looks in photo is exactly how it looks when served to be eaten no fancy trimmings just exactly what goes into the mouth.

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