Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Turkey Albondigas in Broth

I've been craving soup. Not just eating it, but making it. Very bizarre, but whatever. I've been eyeballing this recipe in mah fave cookbook, Isabel's Cantina, since I got it. There's a pic in the book and it's looks all colorful and delicious and meatball-y. This cookbook has yet to let me down (link to the right). GO GET IT.

For meatballs:
8 oz ground turkey
1/2 med red onion, minced (wtf is the difference between minced and chopped?? Smaller? I have no idea)
2 garlic cloves, minced 2 Tbl finely chopped fresh mint
1 large egg, lightly beaten (oops, didnt read the beaten part. No harm done)
1/2 cup bread crumbs or panko
1 tsp salt (recipe says 'kosher salt'....yeeeeeah....)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbl canola or peanut oil (I used oil, since I didnt have these)

For broth
2 Tbl olive oil
1 med yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced

2 med carrots, diced

1 celery stalk, diced
1 cup dry white wine

3 Tbl tomato paste
1-2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, finely chopped (I used one, even scraped the seeds out, and it was definitely spicy enough. Good thing the can had like 15 in it. Pffffft)
6 cups chicken broth (I used low-sodium, and it was more than fine. I think regular would make it way too salty)
1 med zucchini

To make the meatballs, mix together the turkey, onion, garlic, mint, egg, bread crumbs, and salt in a medium bowl, using your hands. Form the mixture into small meatballs, about 1 inch in diameter. You should have about 12 meatballs. Roll the meatballs in the flour to coat. If not cooking them immediately, set the meatballs on a platter and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to cook. This can be done up to 1 day in advance.

To make the broth, heat the olive oil in a medium heavy-bottomed pot over med-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is soft and translucent, about 3 mins. Add the carrots and celery. Continue cooking for a few mins more, stirring well to coat the vegetables with the olive oil.

Add the white wine and simmer for 5 mins. Mix together the tomato paste and chipotle chiles and then stir into the vegetables in the pot. Add the chicken broth and simmer for 20 mins. Stir in the zucchini and cook for about 5 mins, or until tender.

While the broth is simmering, cook the meatballs. Heat the canola oil in a large saute pan (I used my electric skillet. Still not sure about that thing) over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Brown the meatballs in batches until cooked through, about 4 mins (ehhh....mine took more like 10 mins).

When all the meatballs have been browned, transfer them to the simmering broth and remove the pot from the heat.

Serve the soup steaming hot, topped with a sprinkling of chopped mint.

I was a little skeptical of the mint. Mint in meatballs/soup sounds...weird. Then again, I suck at using herbs, so they all sound weird to me. I WAS WRONG. Holy hell, those meatballs were SO good. The mint was great. The broth, like I mentioned about, was nice and spicy (white girl spicy), but bursting with flavor. The whole thing probably took me an hour or so. Not bad!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

wow, you are actually becoming quite the cook!

DH