swedish meatballs with cream sauce

meaty stuff:

bits:

* 500g beef/pork/whatever mince
* 1 medium onion
* 1 cup of mashed potatoes
* 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs or plain flour
* 200ml soda water
* 1 or 2 eggs depending on size
* parsley, salt to taste
* butter or (rice bran) oil for frying

vague order:

1. wash and peel the potatoes, microwave or boil them until they are soft, mash them up and leave them to cool.
2. cut the onion into little pieces (superlittle pieces worked better than little pieces) and saute in some butter (or oil) until soft, transparent, and a bit browny.
3. mix the egg, soda water, breadcrumbs/flour, parsley, salt, and meat together in a big bowl.
4. add the onion and the potato and mix well. i used my hands, because it's easy to tell when it's mixed well enough by the temperature of the mixture.
5. start heating the oil (or butter) in a frying pan (medium to low heat), and start shaping the mixture into small balls. you can shape the balls and place on a plate until you're ready to cook them (might need a little flour to keep them from sticking).
6. fry the meat balls in the oil, turning occassionally to fry all sides. they're done when all sides are brown and delicious-looking, and you can't see any pink bits. the lowish heat should ensure that they're cooked in the middle. smaller sized balls will cook more thoroughly more quickly.
7. place the cooked meatballs on a plate covered in paper towel or paper serviettes to drain excess oil.
8. make some sauce! then serve with salad! you will want salad! i promise you!

saucey stuff:

bits:

* cream
* beef stock
* plain white flour
* parsley, salt, white pepper, paprika to taste

vague order:

1. mix one part cream to two parts stock in a saucepan (or adjust depending on how meaty or how creamy you want it). add one or two tablespoons of plain flour (or more if you want it hella creamy or are doing huge quantities) and mix well. no lumps, please.
2. add any extra stuff you want, like salt or paprika (very small amount!), whatever.
3. cook over a low to medium heat, stirring continuously. the mixture should start to thicken up just before it boils.
4. nomnomnom!

so, 500g of meat is plenty. i used a bit more, and there are absolutely heaps of the little guys. i also put a little cayenne pepper in the meat mixture, but you can't really taste it. if you're putting the shaped meat balls on a floured surface before cooking them, make sure there's not too much flour, or your oil will go black faster. also, most recipes call for cream in the meatballs, not soda water, but it tasted really good, so i'll do what i want. also, i recommend using as little flour as possible in the sauce, otherwise you can totally taste it.

Fried Mealie Pap and Pumpkin cakes

Ingredients:

* 1 cup mealie/maize/corn meal - white or yellow
* 1 1/2 cups water
* 1/2 butternut pumpkin (or thereabouts)
* some oil for frying (rice bran oil was realy nice)
* some more mealie/maize/corn meal in a bowl to dip the cakes in

Do the thing:

1. peel and gut the pumpkin, and cut into smallish pieces. microwave/roast until soft, mash up into pumpkingoo, then let cool while you're doing the rest.
2. bring the water to the boil in a mediumish saucepan
3. gradually mix the mealie/maize flour into the boiling water stirring constantly, keep on low heat.
4. it'll thicken up all of a sudden. keep stirring until it starts threatening to burn in the bottom of the saucepan.
5. when you're sick of stirring, take off the heat and stir the pumpkingoo in. let it cool long enough for you to be able to play with it.
6. heat the oil in a fry pan.
7. get a tablespoon or two's worth of the goop, make it vaguely squished ball shaped, coat in the mealie/maize flour in the bowl.
8. fry in the oil until it goes crispy and a bit brown on the outside, then flip over and do the other side.

it's pretty good if it's still a bit gooey on the outside. also, it'd work wel with polenta. also, you could bake it in the oven in a big slab instead, but it doesn't get oily crispy delicious.