It’s raining meatballs & babies today and we love it! I have to say that this particular post isn’t just plain cute & heartwarming, but it’s also the true spirit of what I’m offering you through this platform that I love so much. Being able to share people’s stories and signature dishes is one thing but being surrounded for a day by a mother’s true love for both food and her ridiculously adorable twin babies…I love what I do! 🙂 So what’s on the menu today? The best, I repeat the BEST meatballs you’ll ever have! Oh and that’s a promise made by myself as well as the twins’ mommy: Meet Niene.
Ever since her early teenage years, Niene knew she was a true foodie. Well, back then the world didn’t have the pleasure of using hash-tags and thus #foodie wasn’t an existing label yet. Nevertheless, she really loved food. Throughout the years her love for food (AND in my opinion having the balls to do so) led to her passion for experimental cooking. What’s experimental? Simply NOT following a recipe and creating your own signature version of dishes. Crayfish curry, jalapeno pasta or a spectacular boeuf bourguignon are on her list of signature dishes. You can imagine that she was quite confused when I told her that I wanted to feature her meatballs on the blog. There are no out-of-the-box ingredients or expensive products used, but merely a food-tabulous combination and amount of great products. Interesting note: her husband totally agreed with me and I believe that the twins at some point even nodded and clapped their tiny hands! 😉
Before presenting the recipe I simply must share a few more cute-babies-eating-meatballs-shots. Thanks to Niene and her lovely family for sharing their signature dish and family love for food!
SCROLL DOWN FOR THE PRINTABLE RECIPE
BUY:
- Serves approximately 16 meatballs
- One pound (500 gr) minced beef
- 1 tbsp minced meat spice mix *
- 1 tbsp nutmeg
- 3 tbsp breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 1 red onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp mustard
- 4 mushrooms
- 6 semi-dried tomatoes
- Some springs of parsley
DO:
- Chop veggies (as small as possible!) and mix with minced beef & spices in a large bowl
- Add an egg and a tablespoon of mustard
- Mold the mixture as thoroughly as possible while melting some butter and olive oil in a large (casserole) pan
- Softly(!) form minced beef mixture into 3 cm (approximately) meatballs and place onto a dish
- You're ready to fry the meatballs on medium heat for about 10 minutes
- Add 1 or 2 cups of boiled water until the meatballs are covered halfway and let the dish simmer for about 5 minutes on medium heat
- Now take a meatball, test if it's cooked well, say NOM NOM NOM if so or cook a little longer
- Serve with whatever you feel like eating. Enjoy! 🙂
- Note: you can serve this dish with whatever you like. Niene cooked some pasta and poured a homemade tomato/pepper/fresh basil sauce over it, as it's all about the juicy meatballs in this recipe.
Oh and FYI:
* European Foodies: The mentioned spice mix can usually be bought at your local supermarket/grocery store. Non-European Foodies: in case you (most likely) are not able to buy this mix, no worries! Here's (more or less) the recipe to make it yourself: Mix 4 tbsp salt, 3 tbsp ground nutmeg, 2 tbsp ground white pepper, 1 tbsp ground mace, 1 tbsp ginger powder, 1 tbsp onion powder, 0.5 tbsp ground coriander seeds, 0.5 tbsp garlic powder
What a lovely story, fabulous recipe and oh my gosh…those twins are absolutely adorable! Great website and writing as well! xx
Thanks for your lovely compliments Shirley! And yes, the twins are adorable. I loved every minute of that day with Niene and her family. Glad you enjoyed! 🙂