Ok, so here´s my entry for the meal contest.
Nothing too fancy, but it got me awarded!! :victory:
Igni meatballs
A fiery dish for Witchers to keep warm during those cold nights in the hunt for monsters!
Ingredients for a two-people meal (most of the quantities can be adjusted according to each person´s taste):
- 500 g of minced roast beef meat
- 1 onion
- 1 egg
- Breadcrumbs
- Sunflower seed oil
- Garlic
- Tomato sauce
- Rice (2 tea cups)
- Black pepper
- Salt
- Sugar
- Chili powder
- Cumin
Place the minced meat in a bowl. Add the egg and some oil to the meat and enough breadcrumbs (a couple of handfuls should suffice) so that the meat binds together when given shape with your hands. Mix well the ingredients with your hands. Add salt, black pepper, cumin, crushed garlic and chili powder into the mixture according to your taste and mix the ingredients with your hands. Once the mixture is homogenous looking, shape it with your hands into balls, making them quite compact. The amount you´ll get depends on the size you give them.
Cover the meatballs with a thin layer of breadcrumbs and place them in a pan with some place in it. Fry them at high temperature for about 5 minutes rotating them from time to time, to make a crust with the breadcrumbs. Let them rest over absorbent paper afterwards.
Chop the onion into small pieces and crush some more garlic. Pour some oil into a metal pot, put it in the fire until it heats up and place the onion inside. After about 5 minutes add the crushed garlic for about a minute, and then the tomato sauce. Keep stirring the sauce while adding salt, black pepper and chili powder. The idea is for it to be quite spicy, but it of course depends on your taste. Also add a couple of teaspoons of sugar into the mix. You can also add some parsley, if you like it.
Once the mix is hot and spiced, add the meatballs and cover the pot. Let simmer for about half an hour (although it depends on the size you gave to your meatballs).
In another pot boil the rice for about 10-12 minutes, adding salt according to your taste. Once the rice is done, discard the water and add it into the pot containing the sauce with the meatballs. It may be necessary to add a bit more spices after your add the rice.
Mix it all together, and it´s ready to serve!
Attached pictures: The first one shows the pot with the sauce and the meatballs in it, while the second one shows the dish served (the balls may break down a bit when you serve them, as it happened to me!).