Hard-working husband is back out in the field. The next month or so is going to be pretty busy for both of us; I probably won't be making it up to Dongducheon very often. So today I decided to finish my Valentine's present and add the Moroccan meatballs that Mike likes to my freezer stockpile.
I use this recipe as a starting point; I found it because I was looking for recipes to use my ras el hanout spice (bought at the San Diego farmer's market because I love Moroccan food). I know, the recipe does not call for ras el hanout. I use it anyway, instead of the saffron and tumeric and in addition to the meatball spices. You might have guessed already that my perfectionism / OCD does not extend to cooking. I am not much of a recipe follower; often because I don't have all the right ingredients or equipment, sometimes because I'm crunched for time or simply don't want to bother with some of the more involved processes, and very occasionally because I get creative and make the recipe more involved. My macgyvering does not always yield gourmet results, but I get the job done, more or less. And I figure I'm learning as I go, and hopefully the accumulated experience will count for something when my husband gets tired of being nice about less than awesome food.
Anyway. Meatballs. Since I have a fancy camera that doesn't get enough use, and since I've been inspired by a really fun blog, I decided to give you photos of the process. Here are the ingredients:
The can in the back next to the raisins is bread crumbs; only I didn't have the right kind (the recipe calls for Panko, and I figured Italian-spiced might not be the best substitute), so I used crunched-up Rice Krispies. I used bullion and water instead of broth, ground ginger instead of fresh, and ground cinnamon instead of sticks, and normal purple raisins instead of golden ones. I also used frozen onions left over from my spaghetti of a week ago, baby cut carrots, already-sprouted garlic, and wilted cilantro--all from my shopping trip of a week ago. You do what you gotta do.
Here's the meatball pile:
And my rings, on the counter. Away from the meatball mushing:
I got everything mushed up, then got the stew put together and simmering:
And made the meatballs. I chopped the rest of my wilted cilantro for the stew.
Into the oven it went. I'm sure if I had used fresh ingredients--as well as only and all of the ingredients the recipe actually calls for--I would have ended up with a tastier end product. But I gotta say, it was pretty yummy despite my substitutions.
I didn't have cous cous, the traditional Moroccan grain, so I went with quinoa, which I've never cooked before. I'm actually not sure if I've ever eaten it before, but I've read that it's good for you, and when I saw it in the commissary a while back I decided I'd take the opportunity to try something new.
Not sure if this is what it's supposed to look like:
But it was decently tasty, and went well with my meatballs:
The rest went into the freezer, along with the rest of the spaghetti and southwest soup (after I snapped a picture of the stockpile):
And finally, the aftermath:
Although let's be honest--that's a couple of days' worth. It seems to somehow multiply in the sink.
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