Meaty Meatballs

We have a very noisy house. I am kind of loud (and overbearing) for the most part, and the kids can't sit at the table and have quiet conversation. There is always lively conversation or a debate over something  (or nothing) going on. 

Somehow, and I am thankful for this, dinner time in our house ends up being so much more than just 'dinner'. It is the place to be on a Friday night. 

Knowing that a few of our friends were coming over for supper, I decided to 'help' the Chef with dinner, because we were having one of my favourite things ever. Spagetti and meatballs.

Earlier this week, Ron had used up the last of our summer Basil plant (we say BAY-zihl; you say BA-zihl)

and made a tomato basil sauce. So the hard part was done. If you have never made your own pasta sauce and insist on buying the sugar loaded ones at the grocery store, then try this easy peasy recipe and you will be hooked. 

Basil Infused Olive Oil

2 cups Olive oil

1 whole bulb of garlic

1 med size onion (chopped)

2 good handfuls of Basil

Throw it all into a pot and cook until the onion and basil are turning brown, but not burnt. 

Remove from the heat and strain in a wire mesh strainer (not a plastic one)

Open five cans of plum tomatoes and dump into a large bowl. (chop the tomatoes if whole)

Add in your infused olive oil and voila. 

Pasta (or pizza) sauce, done! You can store it in the fridge for a week (easily) and we like to freeze little baggies of it for those nights when you just don't feel like cooking!

Next, onto the meatballs.

This is a fairly big recipe that fed 6 adults and four kids last night and we still have some meatballs in the fridge that might be 'Cheesy Meatball Sandwiches' for lunch later today.

1 1/2 pound Ground Beef

1 1/2 pound Ground Pork

1 1/2 pound Ground Turkey

2 cups fresh breadcrumbs (with chopped raw garlic and parsley)

6 eggs

2 cups of milk

1 cup grated parmesan cheese (can be omitted if there are cheese allergies)

Lots of ground pepper

4 tsp of salt

Before you move on, get two large sheet pans greased with some olive oil and turn the oven on high.

Also, get a small frying pan and leave it on the stove top (warming) with a little olive oil.

Now, here is the yucky part. Put it all in a bowl and mix with your bare hands. Raw meat, raw eggs, milk, breadcrumbs...............you have to really love food to get into this part. I hate raw meat and all the raw eggs etc. but this is the best way to truly 'make' these meatballs. You need to mix this up like a bread dough. Making sure it is completely mixed all the way through.

Before you start making the meatballs, take a small amount of the meat/mix and fry it in that small pan you have waiting. As soon as it is cooked, assume because all the kids were eagerly waiting to eat it and did so without worrying that they might burn their mouths that it is perfect the way it is, taste it for seasoning and adjust to suit yourself. 

Now, make into a nice size meatball (not the little ones) and place on the (already prepared) sheet pans. Cook in the oven for twenty minutes or (my personal favourite when I ask the Chef a million time's if there are done yet) 'until they are done'.  

HOW WOULD I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE DONE???

SO, before I get into the PASTA part of the meal, find the largest pot you own and fill it 3/4 of the way with water and put it on to boil. You ALWAYS have to add SALT to the water. The water should taste like the ocean. DO not use low sodium salt here (unless of course your doctor has advised you to stick to a low sodium diet). As a matter of fact, whilst I am on the subject, if you own low-sodium salt, throw it away. It has a terrible taste. Go buy some Maldon Sea Salt (large flakes) and some plain old Saxa table salt. 

OK, where was I. Oh yes, the first thing you need to know is 'I do not like pasta'. The only time I eat pasta is when the resident Chef cooks it. I also HATE cooking pasta, because in this house, if pasta overcooks, then pasta is thrown out, and we have to start all over again. Therefore, I never cook the pasta. If you live in the US, then the pasta you should be buying is La Molissana. Why? Because it is the best. If you live on the other side of the pond where we are, then you should be eating DeCecco. Why? Because it is the best. If you want to make your own pasta from scratch, then do so, but you will get great results from either of the above brands, every time. 

Once the water has come to the boil, dump in two packets of linguine and stir the pasta continuously. Do not stop stirring. Never (ever) break the pasta. That is just wrong, and the Italians never do it. If you have been breaking your pasta all along, because it will not fit in the pot, then go out and buy a bigger pot. The linguine will only take 9 minutes to cook. Get a large strainer set up in your sink and once it is done (taste it - do you like the texture? Al dente is best) strain the pasta and set it aside for a few minutes. NEVER EVER rinse it with water. 

Now, those yummy meatballs are cooked (and hopefully you did not let them burn). In another large pot, pour in your tomato sauce and all your meatballs. Allow to come to the boil then simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour (or longer if you are waiting for your BFF to arrive with the wine). 

The longer the meatballs simmer, the softer and fluffier and lighter they become. Just make sure you have the pot on a low simmer and do not burn the sauce/meatballs. You will notice a lot of the excess oil floating to the top. Ladle it off and keep it. This is your infused olive oil. You can use it tomorrow for making the same kind of sauce again for lasagne! Waste not want not!

Last but not least, dig out a loaf of stale bread (I know you all have one) and make some garlic butter (several cloves of raw garlic chopped, with chopped raw parsley) whilst you are waiting. Butter the bread throw it in the oven for a few minutes. 

Dump your Linguine back into that pot you cooked it in. Spoon out all the meatballs into a nice large serving bowl, and pour all the sauce over your pasta and mix it nicely. Then place a nice large serving bowl on the table filled with your pasta, and the other bowl with the meatballs. There should be enough to feed a small starving army. Grate some parmesan cheese over the pasta for a final blast of flavour. Again, here, I will have to insist that you only use the real deal - Parmigiano Reggianno. Do not use the schwag. Remember - Garbage in, Garbage out.

Get the kids to set the table, compliment your husband on the fine job he did making dinner, drink every last drop of the yummy wine your BFF brought to share and be everlastingly thankful for cousins and friends that sweep the floor and do the dishes before they all roll out the door, happy to have had such a yummy start to their weekends.

Life is miserable for so many people in the world today. Everyone is worried about the 'state of the economy' and the doom and gloom that the next budget will bring. 

It is so important to reflect on the fact that we are healthy, we have a roof over our heads and we can enjoy a lovely meal on a Friday night with our friends and family. What more can a girl ask for.

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

Blogging be-damned!

I think I have writers block. The reason that I say 'think' is because I am not sure if I have ever had writers block, so am not sure what the symptoms are. I went to the first Irish Food Bloggers meeting last week in Dublin. Hosted by Bord Bia and organised by the adorable Donal Skehan (The Good Mood Food Blog).

I spent the day hanging with some cool foodies and got to learn a lot about:

1.     Irish Pork

2.     How to take better photos for all the blogging I do (food styling etc.), 

3.     When to blog (daily, weekly etc.FYI - it is best to post once a week on Tuesdays!) 

4.     How to go from ' Blog to Book ' . This was probably the most interesting segment of the day for me. 

There are a few things I learned that will help me 'tailor' my blog in case I ever want to attempt that unimaginable task! 

So to start with Bord Bia (aka Irish Food Board) spent a lot of time ' pushing pork ' on all us bloggers. Why you say? Well, back in 2008 the Irish Department of Agriculture issued a press statement saying restrictions have been placed on a number of pig farms following the discovery of contaminated animal feed. It says it discovered polychlorinated biphenyls (PCPs). These are organic pollutants normally occurring as a result of industrial processes, in pork fat during routine monitoring.

Since then the Pork industry has struggled to stay afloat and now the folks at Bord Bia are trying to spread the word that the ' Pig is back in town'  and safe to eat. They wanted us bloggers to eat a lot of Pork then go back home and encourage all our readers to ' eat more Irish Pork'.  

I was kind of bored for the first half of the day truth be told. I know all the important cuts of meat on a pig (I learned that at The Preble County Pork Festival years ago. I also learned how to scald and skin a pig too should the need ever arise). A lot of very cool people showed up teaching us how to utilise Irish Pork in several different styles. We covered fajhitas, a stirfry and a curry. I was a little sad that no one shared any Irish recipes and even though Bord Bia put on a really delicious lunch spread for all the hungry bloggers, we did not get to taste anything the demonstrators had just cooked?

Just as we were tucking into our desserts and getting ready to move back into the boardroom, a really cool guy named Eoin Purcell stepped up to the plate to talk to us about our big fat ego's.......... huh?

Apparently we would not be throwing ourselves out there into the internet abyss if we did not have a huge ego that needed stroking from all our peeps. I always thought I married the one with the huge ego. Actually,  I am certain that I did marry the one with the huge ego. Does this now mean that I have to face 'facts' and admit I write because my ego needs it? 

Hence the arrival of writers block this week. Not even as much as a ' Mary had a little lamb'  quote on Facebook out of me. Here I sit wondering if anything I have to say is actually relevant at all and even if I think it is relevant why do I have the insane urge to share it with everyone?

Seeing as I have bored you all this far I might as well carry on with a little bit more blogging and blathering. You see I am just settling in nicely to my four month hiatus from University life. We have a couple of extra (foster) kids hanging around the house which makes life a little more hectic than normal, so maybe my writers block does not necessarily stem from all that above ego/reality check stats. Maybe I am just busy?

Maybe I am distracted by the fact that I have to create a different kind of home environment to heavily nurture the new kids making sure they feel like they have a safe place to lay their heads, a hearty meal to nourish their bodies and ample (if not extra) access to hugs when needed. 

With Rory's seventh birthday looming, a lot of time has been spent looking back over the hectic life we have been leading. I am constantly in awe of who she is becoming. She is a take charge kind of girl, and amazingly  is the epitome of what WiseHospitality is all about here in Ireland.

So, with all that said and having unloaded all my insecurities of my chest for this fine summers evening, I have come to one conclusion: 

I write because I have to. 

It is in me, and it has to come out. 

For the most part, my words get whirled around the internet 300 + times a week. Hats off to my loyal blog followers, all my Facebook friends and my family. For you (all) I am eternally thankful. 

Those are all the (very long winded) WiseWords I have for tonight,

WiseMóna 

Lovely Lobster - Yummy!

As you all know - I am the luckiest girl alive! The reason that you know this, is because I remind you of this on a very regular basis. The chef arrived home from work early yesterday giving us reason to start our weekend a little earlier than normal - and for me that is always a nice surprise! He was not in the door 2 minutes (just enough time to crack open a bottle of Sam Adams) when our neighbour Eddie (or the Oyster Man as we have affectionately nicknamed him) stopped over to see if we wanted to come over for dinner.....................??

Eddie has connections! He had just gotten back from a motorcycle ride out to Inverin, Connemara to meet a guy and fill up his backpack with some freshly caught lobsters and several pounds of scallops (in the shell). His lovely Wife - Teresa had thrown together a huge spring salad and it was "Hello Weekend!" Ron mixed up a few different spices to make his own blackening seasoning for some of the scallops and showed Eddie how to 'sear and sauce' the slippery sea gems.
Eddie knows a guy, who knows a guy etc. out in Connemara, and it was a quick exchange - they met at a petrol station, the fisherman loaded all he could fit into Eddies backpack, and he about turned heading home. A 3 hour ride round trip - and happy bellies were had by all.

The only complaint I had late last night, was that both of my children had the audacity to complain about there not being enough lobster!!!!

Spoiled brats, I say - feed them macaroni & cheese!

That is all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

Cabbage Rolls......................Devine!

Finally, after weeks and months of begging....................the Chef decided today was the day to make cabbage rolls for dinner. I think most of you remember this as the meal he served at Rondo's to all the lucky ones but never ran it as a special or put it on the menu because it was just Cabbage Rolls! Well, I for one am happy to have this fine dish to celebrate our Thanksgiving Day Dinner!
Ron has recently decided to grow a beard and the jury is out as to whether or not he is going to keep it!

OK, to get right to it the Cabbage Rolls are dead easy. The secrets are to make in advance a lovely creamy tomato sauce and use leftover rice or cook 3 cups. (It is better to use brown rice - trust me on this one, and not the easy/quick cook stuff).

TOMATO SAUCE
2 cans of tomatoes, puree them with the stab blender. Season to taste (salt/pepper/little bit of Franks Red Hot). Add a few tablespoons of Sour Cream and let cook slowly for an hour. You can add a little bit of cabbage water at a later point if you think it has thickened too much.

CABBAGE
Before you start working on the Cabbage, get out a non-reactive roasting pan.
Get either one large head of cabbage (white or savoy) or mix it up with some Kale which is abundant this time of year.

Boil a large pot of water (seasoned with Salt/Pepper). Peel of the outer leaves and place in boiling water. Let them cook for five mins. Use them to line the bottom of your roasting pan.
Now, with the Kale or the rest of the cabbage - peel off the leave and blanch them until they are that lovely green color like you see in the photo above. Set them aside.

MEAT/RICE MIX
2 onions, 6 cloves of garlic. Saute gently in 2 tablespoons of butter. Add to 1 pound of ground turkey and 1 pound of ground pork/beef. Chop in a decent amount of parsley and salt/pepper.
Add in cooked rice.
The Chef's TIP here: Fry up a small piece of this meat mixture to see how it tastes. If necessary adjust the seasoning!

Lay out your cabbage leaves on a clean work surface and place a decent amount of meat/rice mixture into the center of the cabbage leaves. Roll up the cabbage leaves, tucking in the sides as you roll up. Ron shows his true skill here and told me that I would have been much better at this task if I had ever been a dope smoker!

When finished you should have one or wo layers of little cabbage rolls in your roasting pan.
Cover with tomato sauce and let cook for one hour at 350 F.
These ALWAYS taste better the next day but a little longer in the oven will not hurt them.

The Chef likes to put a dollop of sour cream on his and we serve it with a nice loaf of crusty bread! I think a Pinot Noir would go nicely with this, and will ALERT you later on as to how it all washes down!

That is all the WiseWords for today,

WiseMóna

Gourmet Babies

Cheese in Ireland is a strange thing. There are soooooo many really great yummy yummy cheeses. Cashel Blue to name our personal favourite is now available all over the world! There are a million different cheddars, a few great smoked and unsmoked goudas, unbelievable goats cheese (including some exceptional dry aged). But when a girl goes to town looking for a bag of shredded mozzarella (yes, the yucky kind) there is not a scrap to be found!

You can, however find the most beautiful balls of fresh baby mozzarella at most grocery stores and even, wait for it - fresh cheese curd!

So, when Pizza night rolls around every so often here at Chez Wise - the children sing the same tune every time - More Cheese Please!!

Now, as you know, our little restaurant babies have unusual, if not great taste buds!

Ron had to pop out last night for a little while and I was left to 'fixin dinner' for the 2 crumb catchers. In saying I was left to do this arduous chore, let me clarify a few things. The chef had made some pizza dough for the kids to make their own pizzas. I had to open the jar of tomato sauce and get the cheese out of the fridge. (I know, I am a lucky girl!)

They proceeded to sauce and cheese their pizza and when asked how they wanted to top it off (sausage, mushroom, etc) they asked for thinly sliced apple??

I sliced it, they arranged it. I popped the pizza in the over for all of 8 minutes if that and they ate the entire pie before it had a chance to cool down.

Its a winner for any Mum out there trying to get their children to eat more fruit!

That is all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

Another lovely Wine ??

Well, OK. So this is not a stellar wine. Sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince. In this case, we are looking at the manservant of the prince.
Ron remembered Mezzacorona from his days at Chateau Pomijie and thought it would be worth revisiting. From what he could remember it was overpriced and just OK.
That was more than 15 years ago, and what do you know. He feels the wine has stayed true to his memory all those years ago!
We over chilled it, and ate it with a spicy fish pie and it actually complemented the meal quite well, but as we sipped that last glass it had warmed up a little and was just way 'over pronounced' with a very tiresome & lacking finish.

All was not lost, the Fish Pie (new recipe for Ron too) was stellar (albeit a little rich for the arteries).

Ingredients

A nice piece of fresh salmon

Fresh white fish (haddock, cod,)

2 lbs mussels, clams or both!

8 lovely fat shrimp (fresh - with head on)

(When buying the fish, ask the fishmonger to give you the scraps (skin, etc) from the trimmings of your fish. It is great for your fish stock)

1 bunch of baby leeks,

1 cup grated Gruyere

3 cups fish velouté

Small bag new potatoes (boil them, and allow to cool)

4 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced

2 tbps unsalted butter

2 cups white wine

1 cup Noilly Prat (dry vermouth)

2 cups fish stock

1 cup heavy cream

Now, before you get started - make sure you like fish and cream. It ends up kind of like a fish shepherd's pie.

Put the mussels/clams in a large pot with a little olive oil and about 1 cup white wine.

Put on the lid for 5 minutes. When all mussels have opened, pull them out, then throw in the whole shrimp. Let them cook just for a few minutes.

Take them out, take of the heads and peel them.

Keep heads, tails etc.for fish stock.

In a separate pot, put the heads, tails etc. of shrimp, the trimmings from the fishmonger into a pot and add 1/2 cup white wine. Allow to cook for 15 minutes.

If you have some fish or lobster stock in the fridge, now would be a good time to add this.

If you do not, sauté the shallots and leeks in a pan with some butter until soft.

Add the wine and dry vermouth a splash at a time, allowing it to fully reduce.

(now, it is called Velouté)

Add the cream, then strain the juice from the fish stock you have cooking right into the shallot/leek mix.

Take the pieces of raw fish and place into the fish sauce. Allow to cook for a few minutes.

Remove mussels from shells. Take all fish, sauce, mussels & shrimp and put into your fav. casserole dish. Slice baby potatoes on top of this mixture and then sprinkle with the Gruyere cheese.

Allow to cook in the oven for at least 20 minutes (fairly high heat) until the potatoes have crisped up a little and the cheese is melted and a little crispy.

As mentioned earlier, it is quite rich but I assure you very very tasty and especially of you are lucky enough to get fresh fish.

Yumba!

That is all the WiseWords for today,

WiseMóna

Did anyone say food??

There are a few things you need to know about Ireland and Food. We have a 'meat and potatoes' reputation but I gotta tell you there is some unbelievable food on this little island. Above, the sign for Blaa Dogs is the southern part of Ireland's answer to a hot dog. The Blaa is a soft roll (round in shape) and can be soft or crunchy crust. It is only made in Waterford and we are finding it impossible to get a recipe. I think you have to live there to be allowed to make it.

Above here you will see Irish Bok Choy growing quite well. They actually label it Pax Choi here, but it is the same stuff and delicious.
There is no shortage of cheese on this farming island. At every turn we see and eat our way through another bite of sheep, goat or cows milk cheese. There is a little raw milk cheese in production in the south but not a whole lot - I think Ron is thinking about trying his hand at a batch of Irish Parmesan :-)
And of course, lets not forget the fruits of the sea. We went to a lovely oyster farm and got to see the entire production in operation. Stick with me on this one as it is quite interesting.

Irish people (in general) do not eat fish. I know, this is a disgrace and I am making it my mission in life to change this statement. To be honest, we could have avoided the deaths of almost 1,000,000 people during the Potato Famine of 1845 if we had harvested from the sea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Potato_Famine

Back to the oyster farm. Ron and I have always been lovers of this creature. So a tour to this oyster farm was high on our list of priorities. The farm we toured was at the bottom of the country in County Waterford very close to Dungarvan. http://www.waterfordtourist.com/maps/cities_and_towns/.

The farmer was originally a dairy farmer but the demand for oysters in the '80s was so great he converted to oyster farming. The demand I hear you say??? Yes, from the French! They buy 'seedlings' from France, raise them for 18mths to 2 years in the Irish sea, sort, grade & sell them back to France as FRENCH Oysters.
It is like we adopt them, raise them as our own, then send them back to where they came from. Only 2% of Oysters fished in IRISH seas are eating by the Irish. To be honest, that is probably not even true, as we know one of them is an American and I am sure he is not alone!

The fishermen, some Irish and some from Poland, work 6 days a week for 3 or 4 weeks in a row then get a week off. They work with the tides and the tides work with the moon. Each day, there are two tides but they only work with the morning tides - they can drive the tractors almost 3 miles out on the bay. 3 miles!!! They gather up the bags the oysters are growing in, bring them back to the plant to sort & grade them, and then put them right back on the bed of the ocean before the tide rolls back in. Here is the really interesting part - France cannot do this. It would take them 3 times as long to grow the quality of oysters we have here in Eiré because they have short tides (like 30 minutes) and have lost several tractors and lives due to this. If one of the Irish tractors went down with a load of oysters the loss would be in the range of 100,000 euros or more (Load of oysters costing upwards of 20,000 euros plus the fancy tractor).

I am getting to the end of the story which I found so interesting. During the 4th or 5th week depending on the moon there are NO TIDES, so they all get a week off. With that, we sampled the harvest of the day only to be delighted with tasting the best oyster we have ever tasted. It was undoubtedly the creamiest oyster that has ever passed these lips (and that of Ron's too) and we are still craving our trip back to the farm for another.


To finish up with, we stopped at an orchard later that day only to find it is the farm where Bulmers buys its apples. http://www.bulmers.ie/. This was a pretty cool experience too and we had some apples and of course a spot of cider for the road. Thank goodness we had a bus driver to take our sleeping selves back home.


All in all, the Irish food scene is alive and kicking. People are truly into food. I do not see a whole lot of spice being thrown around but you can't have it all!

That's all the WiseWords I have for today,
WiseMona