Sopa de Albóndigas or Mexican Meatball Soup

When we were preparing to move to Cairo, I found a website that gives all kinds of personal advice, written by people who have been posted worldwide by the US State Department.  They clearly had a questionnaire they were following and I am sure this information was supposed to be for the benefit of other State Department folks but I came to it through a link from a friend (Thanks, Sabine!) and I wasted time researched, for many hours.  (Hey, you never know where we will go next!  Reading other country reports is still research.  Check it out!)  The questionnaire respondents were full of vital information about their postings in Cairo (and elsewhere) and I got a good laugh from many of the answers.  My favorite question though, because it was so unexpected, was “What would you leave behind?”  Some respondents didn’t answer this one.  But what I thought was the best answer, based on the annual Cairene weather forecast was ”An umbrella.”  And then, I moved to Cairo. 

The wind was howling last Friday and then the rain came on.  Yes, the rain came on.  Which, as you know, means – say it with me – a soup day.  And while a soup day in KL was JUST rainy, a Cairene soup day in February is also chilly.  Hallelujah!

LOOK! The aftermath:  It's all wet and our one piece of outdoor furniture
was blown clear into the yard by the strong winds.  Yeah, our shipment hasn't been delivered yet.
   Forty-four days and counting.  Thanks for caring.

I made a lovely soup adapted from a recipe in my Christmas cookbook, which you have all heard about before, Fried Chicken and Champagne.  This is not fancy but it has a lovely flavor that puts me in mind of tortilla soup.  I think it must be the cilantro (fresh coriander) and ground cumin.  I can highly recommend it.

Ingredients

For the soup:

1 tablespoon butter

Olive oil

1 small onion

1 medium carrot

2-3 cloves of garlic

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 tomatoes

1 tablespoon Mexican oregano (I didn’t have any so I substituted regular oregano.)

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3/4 cup chopped celery

1 bunch of cilantro or fresh coriander

1 1/2 quarts chicken stock  (Water and stock cubes are fine.)

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Sea salt

Black pepper

For the meatballs:

1 lb or 500g of ground beef

1 small bunch of cilantro or fresh coriander

1/4 cup of uncooked long-grain rice

2 eggs

Sea salt

Black pepper

Method

Chop your onion and carrots and slice the garlic finely in the melted butter with a little drizzle of olive oil.   Cook until they are tender.

Meanwhile, chop your tomatoes, celery and cilantro.

When your sautéed vegetables are ready, add the tomatoes, cilantro, celery, then the cumin, oregano and cayenne. 

Add in the chicken stock and the tomato paste and the half-teaspoon of sugar.

Bring to the boil and then let this simmer while you make your meatballs. 

For the meatballs, chop the cilantro finely and mix it in well with the ground beef, rice, eggs and a good sprinkle of the salt and pepper.

Using a couple of teaspoons, drop small amounts of the mixture onto a flat surface and then roll them into little balls.  As you can see, I got 30+ meatballs out of my mixture.

Drop the meatballs gently into the simmering soup and stir very carefully to separate them.  You do not want to break them up.  

Simmer for another 20-30 minutes or until you are sure the meat and rice in the meatballs are cooked.  

You can garnish with some additional cilantro to serve, but I completely forgot that step. 

Enjoy!

Quick Duck Confit, Relatively Speaking

Yeah, it's not gorgeous like this but it will be succulent and delicious.  

In our house, many of the conversations focus on food.  Preparing it, eating it, shopping for it, planning the meals.  Last summer my mother and I had a long and interesting discussion about confit du canard and cassoulet.  I don’t remember which of my cookbooks she was deep into, or perhaps it was something she had read before she got to KL, but the dialog then required further research in other cookbooks and on the internet, but, frankly, it was more of a scientific exercise because the only ducks I had ever seen in KL were 1) already roasted in the Chinese style or 2) scrawny frozen specimens that didn’t look like they’d have enough fat to render to cover their thighs and legs for cooking the confit. 

As much as we wanted to try a genuine cassoulet, full of pork and beans and duck confit, we were discouraged, so we never got to the planning - forget buying - stage.

At my nearby Carrefour here in Cairo, the ducks are fresh and fat and healthy-looking – well, apart from the being dead part.  My first thought was to roast one whole, because I have a new Jamie  Oliver cookbook and he roasts a whole duck.  But there are just two of us and my mind wandered back to last summer’s conversation and research. 

I decided that this duck would be at least two meals:  boneless duck breasts to pan-fry for dinner, legs and thighs to make into confit and a future cassoulet, and then I could even roast the carcass and wings and simmer them to make a rich duck stock, thereby using everything but the quack, which wasn’t included anyway.

The duck breast dinner went pretty much like this, so I won’t repeat that part.  But here’s how to make a simple duck confit with the legs and thighs.

Ingredients

1 large duck with lots of extra skin (choose the biggest one you can)

A few sprigs of thyme

3-4 bay leaves

Sea salt

Black pepper

Method

Separate your legs and thighs from the rest of the duck.  Cut off all the excess skin and fat.

Cut the extra skin and fat into little pieces.  The more surface area there is, the better the fat will render out of the pieces.  Pop them into a small pot and turn the fire on low. 

Put a lid on but have some folded paper towels nearby on which to drip the condensation from the lid when you remove it.  As the fat starts to render, you will not want water dripping into it and causing a big popping, greasy mess on your stove.

Salt the legs and thighs generously on both sides and give them a good few grinds of fresh black pepper.  Tuck in the bay leaves and sprinkle them with lots of thyme leaves.   Cover them with cling film and leave them in the refrigerator overnight, or at least five or six hours.

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C for roasting the bones.

Meanwhile, trim your duck of fat and skin, all around the neck and innards cavities, and keep adding these, cut into small pieces, into the rendering pot.  Remember to drip the condensation on the bottom of the lid into your folded paper towels, not into the pot.

Starting at the breastbone with your sharp pointy knife, carefully cut the breast meat free from the bones.  

Trim the breast of extraneous skin and add this, finely cut, to the rendering pot.   Remove any tough fibers by inserting the knife below them and gently easing the knife along under them.  These can be discarded.

You can score the breasts now or when you are ready to season them.

Your breasts are now ready for cooking so they can be covered and put in the refrigerator until needed.  Instructions for cooking the duck breasts can be found here.

Pull all of the skin off of the back and rest of the carcass.  Add this to the rendering pot as well. 

By now that pot should be getting quite deep with beautiful golden duck fat.  At this point, you should rub your hands together in glee.  Happy dance optional. 

Now on to the stock.  Put the carcass, including the wings, in your preheated oven and roast until lovely and sticky and brown.  The more you roast, the more flavor you will get from these bones.   

When the bones and wings are sufficiently browned, put them in a stockpot covered with fresh water and heat them to boiling on the stove.  Add a little hot water from a kettle into the baking tray and make sure to get all the sticky goodness off and into the stockpot as well.   You can add salt and onions and carrots if you would like but I chose to keep the duck stock pure.  That way I can add salt to taste in whatever recipe I ended up using it, without worrying about too much salt.  

This stock is rich and luscious, even without salt. Once the bones and wings are boiling, reduce the heat to a slow simmer and cook for as long as you have patience for, but at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Apparently, I forgot to take a photograph when the bones came out of the oven.   Sorry!

Place a colander over a large bowl and strain the stock into it.  Allow the stock to cool before putting it into a well-marked freezer bag and popping it into the freezer.  If you (or a neighbor) have an animal that would love the scraps of meat left on the bones, take the time to pick all the little pieces off – especially from the wings which are still full of meat – and add those treats to his or her bowl.  

Once the oil has completely rendered from your skin and fat, turn the fire off and allow it to cool a little bit.  You want it still liquid, just not scalding hot.  Take a piece of paper towel and separate the two plies of the one towel.  Use this as a strainer to clean the duck fat as you pour it through a funnel into a heat-resistant bowl. 

Golden nectar!  If you have never had potatoes roasted in duck fat, you haven't lived yet.  I had to give a jar away when I left KL and it would have broken my heart except I gave it to a good friend.   

Set the duck fat aside in a cool place (the refrigerator if you live in a warm climate) until you need it to cover your thighs and legs for the confit.

And on to the confit.  Preheat your oven to a slow 300°F or 150°C.   Wipe the salt off gently with a paper towel and put the duck into a close fitting pan.  Warm the duck fat gently if it has solidified and pour it over to cover.

Bake at this gentle temperature for at least 2 hours.  Remove from the oven and allow to set.  This can be kept, carefully covered, for a couple of months in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

Completely cooked and just out of the oven

Fat is starting to set

Almost set

Set! 

My mother is supposed to come visit, possibly in March or April so this is standing by in the refrigerator and the conversation begun last June can finally be completed.

So soon, someday soon: cassoulet. 

Update:  I did make the cassoulet, the Languedoc-style with confit duck and sausage and bacon. It's my favorite. The perfect dish for a chilly day. 

Spring Onion Rosemary Cheese Quick Bread

This Spring Onion Rosemary Cheese Quick Bread is easy to make, no yeast, no kneading, no trouble. Just full on flavor and an excellent crumb!

Cairo days

The heater is broken again.  Well, not exactly broken but all the wires that connect it to power have apparently burned up and melted into a molten non-conductive mess.  This happened on Thursday night, of course, because our weekend starts on Friday.  And it's still COLD!

So Friday I made soup – will post that recipe later because it turned out quite delicious – and yesterday I baked bread.  This recipe was adapted from one of my favorites, from the great doyenne of British cookery, Delia Smith.  Her version was with goat cheese and thyme but I have figured out that you can put any cheese and any herb and this will taste fantastic.

Spring Onion Rosemary Cheese Quick Bread

As mentioned above, you can switch out the cheese for any of your favorites, except perhaps something too soft and runny like Camembert or Brie. I fear those might melt completely out of the bread when baked. 

Ingredients

4 oz  or 110g strong cheese of your choice (I used a combo of blue and cheddar.)

4 spring onions, finely sliced

1 medium potato weighing approximately 6 oz or 175g

At least 1 rounded tablespoon fresh herbs (I used rosemary this time.) plus a few extra leaves for the top when baking

6 oz or 175g flour

1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon or generous pinch of cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon English mustard powder

1 large egg

2 tablespoons milk

Olive oil for greasing the cookie sheet

Method

Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Pare the rind from the cheese, if there is one, and cut it into 1/2 inch or 1 cm cubes.  Remove the rosemary leaves from the stalks and mince all but a few.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a big, roomy mixing bowl, holding the sieve up high to give the flour a good airing.

Peel the potato and grate it straight into the flour, using the coarse side of the grater.  Lightly mix the potato in with a fork. 

Mince your spring onions.  

Add the spring onions, rosemary and two-thirds of the cheese to the potato/flour bowl.  Add in the cayenne and mustard powder.

Still using a fork, gently mix everything thoroughly.

After that, beat the egg with the milk, then pour the mixture into the bowl, just bringing it all together to a loose, rough dough, still using your fork.  It will seem too dry to come together but just keep mixing and turning the bowl and the dough and your patience will be rewarded.   It will come together.

Rub a little olive oil on your baking sheet and transfer the dough on top of the oil.

Pat it gently into a 6-inch or 15 cm rough round.  

Now lightly press the rest of the cheese over the surface, and scatter the reserved rosemary leaves over it as well.

Bake the bread on the middle shelf of the oven for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown.  

Remove it to a cooling rack or cutting board and serve it still warm if possible.  We slathered ours with butter and called it lunch! 

Enjoy!