Commencing a week of Mexican-inspired eating, how better to start than with a plate of meatballs in a hot tomato sauce accompanied by some cooling salads?
For the meatballs, combine equal quantities of pork mince and beef mince - 250g of each made 6 large balls each!
Place the meat into a mixing bowl, crack in an egg, some minced onion, a few minced gloves and ... some breadcrumbs! I'm kidding! I'm kidding, although traditional recipes do call for them. Keep it paleo - simply leave this one out or use a couple of tablespoons of potato flour. Pinch of salt, some white pepper, maybe some herbs, dusting of cayenne pepper.
Squeeze the meat through your fists a few times to ensure that all the ingredients are fully combined.
Pour out a little potato flour into a bowl, dividing in the meat mixture and forming meatballs, dropping them into the potato flour and rolling around - this will help with the colouring.
Fry off the meatballs in a skillet and some good fat with a high smoke point - dripping, lard and tallow are all good. Fry on one side, then the other, then around the unfried sides. The meatballs should be pretty much cooked now, but will continue to cook and soften in the sauce.
For the sauce, in a lidded sauté pan, fry off a chopped onion in some fat and add in a carton of chopped tomatoes. Canned tomatoes are almost always lined with BPA which you can google the negative effects of this for yourself; cartons do not, nor does the tomato need an acidity regulator.
Add a finely chopped chilli, or two, to taste - I used a fiery Scotch Bonnet pepper.
Add some paprika, dried oregano and then salt to taste. Add some water to loosen up the sauce, a good tablespoon of tomato purée and then drop the meatballs into the sauce. Lid on and let is simmer on a lower heat for a good hour, softening all the ingredients and continuing the cooking of the meatballs.
Meanwhile, make up a couple of salad sides.
Cauliflower & Avocado - Steam some cauliflower and allow it to cool. Mash an avocado into a mixing bowl, dropping in the now cooled cauliflower and some chopped coriander. Splash of green Tabasco and perhaps a touch of sea salt. Gently fold together to ensure the cauliflower is coated in the avocado.
Shredded Cabbage & Lettuce - Simply shred some white cabbage and some lettuce. Combine with some chopped coriander. Splash of green Tabasco and perhaps a touch of sea salt.
Slug of Tequila to get going and dig in!
