Baked meatballs in tomato sauce

I saw a baked Italian meatball recipe in tomato passata and thought that it's a great meal idea for a busy winter.

Adapted heavily from this greek recipe: http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/baked-meatballs-tomato-sauce-souzoukakia

I liked the recipe because it used rice and I always have leftover rice lying about! It also mixed beef with pork mince, so why not. The spices and herbs are entirely up to you.

Ingredients

250g minced beef

250g minced pork

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tsp paprika 

3 tbsp panko

1 egg

1 1/2 cups rice

1 bottle passata or 1 can tomato

½ cup water

2 cups shredded cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

½ tsp sugar

Method

1) In a big mixing bowl, add the beef, pork, allspice, nutmeg, cumin, coriander, soya sauce, egg, panko and rice. Mix well and knead. 

2) Form into baseball sized balls. I tossed them from hand to hand to knock out the air. Lay in a single layer on an oiled casserole dish. 

3) In a bowl, mix the passata, water, salt, pepper, sugar, basil, and oregano. Pour between the balls. Cover with foil and bake at 180 deg C for 25 minutes.

4) Top with the cheese and uncovered, bake a further 20 minutes at 220 deg C.

5) Serve immediately with more rice if desired.

Chu hou osso bucco

After coming to Aust, I've been introduced to this cut called osso bucco. It replaces ox tail for me, altho oxtail is sometimes also available. It imparts so much flavour and isn't dry after slow cooking compared to skirt steak, gravy beef, or chuck beef. The only downside is the long cooking time because of the bone. But no bone, no taste, eh? But the beauty of this recipe is the staggered cooking times, so no need to wait too long to eat! 

Ingredients

1kg osso bucco

500g skirt steak, gravy beef, chuck beef, or briskit

2 tbsp chu hou sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp djion mustard

2 tbsp cooking wine

1 onion, chopped

2 tbsp minced garlic

2 tbsp minced ginger

4 carrots, peeled and cubed

1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

Method

1) Brown the meat. Remove. Saute the onion, garlic and ginger till fragrant. Return to the meat to the pot (i did all this in my slow cooker).

2) Slow cook for 3 hours for the meat. Skim. Cook another 3 hours for the osso bucco.

3) I served the meat after the initial 3 hours so I added the vegetables in the last hour. Then I cooked the remaining 3 hours the next day. The choice is yours.

4) Refridgerate overnight and it tastes even better the next day, noto to mention u can skim off any congealed fat!