I needed to make something fast the day before yesterday as we were all hungry and I had left it too late to cook dinner as had been working on making a menu on a PC for a friend and time passed very quickly, so I decided on a traditional recipe and added a little surprise inside.
Recipe Ingredients:
500grs minced beef
60grs bread crumbs (I used old bread and crumbed it)
1 egg (medium)
3 garlic cloves
2 tea spoon chilli powder
1 large onion
1 tin of tomatoes
a little bunch of parley
600grs rice
2 bay leafs
some olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Some cheddar cheese
2 soup spoons of tomato paste
This recipe was very fast and very easy to make, is not fattening at all and the garlic and chilli help the blood circulation, and at this time of the year I suppose it is welcomed, also was very cheap to make.
For the rice just put it in boiling water with a crushed garlic clove inside and a couple of spoons of olive oil and salt to taste, after 10 to 12 minutes is cooked depending on the rice you using (I like basmati) once cooked rinse it in a sieve with boiling water and drain it ready to plate.
For the sauce I chopped the onion very finely and the remaining two garlic cloves one to add to the mince the other for the sauce. The meat balls were made as follows, I put the mince in a bowl adding to it the egg (whole) the bread crumbs, one spoon of the chilli powder, one garlic salt and pepper to taste, and mixed all with my hands until was all blended in, then I cut the cheese into little squares and making a little disk in my hand with a portion of the disk mixture I placed the cheese square in the middle, folded the meat around and rolled it into a ball and set it aside until all the meat was spent.
Then in a pan I put some olive oil, let it get hot and added the chilli, onion (diced), bay leafs, garlic, and the meat balls swirling the pan around from time to time until the balls were sealed (you can see this as they turn from red to brown) at this stage I added the tomato a small glass of water and the tomato paste, I let this cook for 20-30 minutes, obviously only started making the rice 10-12 minutes before the rest was ready, so all comes out at same time, and on the last 1 minute of cooking of the balls I added the parsley chopped. As simple as that.
Now you can use spaghetti if you prefer, I do but the family wanted rice and I had to go with the majority.