Cloudy with NO chance of meatballs.

Neatballs? I went online to see the kitchen exploits of fellow vegetarian cooks and came across several sites featuring recipes for Neatballs. One click later and I realised neatballs is a term that's been coined for vegan meatballs.

Why "Neat"?  Well, the "N" represents the "normal" ingredients that go into a neatball. Normal as in common, everyday, easy to find ingredients. Seriously?

A neatball is really a new-fangled way of saying vegetarian or vegan koftas. Instead of ground meat as the base, vegetarians use beans, tofu, nuts, mushrooms, eggplant or pulses as the base for their balls/cutlets. The different base ingredients determine not only the taste of your cutlet but also the texture. Using eggplant, for example, will yield you a smooth, soft cutlet while a nut-bean combo will give you a rough, crunchy texture. Mushrooms, of course, make anything taste good :)



Mushrooms are my favourite base ingredient for vegetarian koftas. And, unlike most recipes using mushroom, with koftas, I find the stems more useful than the caps so I buy the king oyster mushrooms (the one where the stems are at least a couple of inches thick and the caps are tiny and pale) and mix them with some shitake (stems and caps). The stems give you the koftas a kind of toughness you won't find with most vegetables.

I drained the mushrooms (about 2 cups)  and roughly chopped them up. Next, I seasoned them with just salt and pepper and dry roasted them for about 30 mins (150C). Let them cool.

Once cool, mix the caps with other ingredients of choice: I used walnuts (1/4 cup), some carrots (1/2 cup), parsley (a handful, chopped) and eggplant (1/2 cup, lightly roasted) and blend them till they are slightly pureed -- allow for some chunkiness. Add some mash potato (1 potato) and breadcrumbs (just 1/2 cup, optional) and season with oregano, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Roll into balls, and you're set.

Bake at 180C for 20 mins or till they're nice and browned. I cooked my koftas in a tomato-based stew and ate it with spaghetti but I kept several aside to eat on their own for my dinner tomorrow. They're that tasty ..

Almost chunky peanut butter

Man cannot live by bread alone. He must have peanut butter ≈ Bill Cosby

I think I discovered peanut butter when I was in my teens. You're amazed? Yeah, me too. My mother never included peanut butter in her grocery lists ... ever. I don't really know why ... I never asked her. But when I was 13 or 14 I had a sleepover at a friends house and for breakfast, we were served PBJs: yeah, the all famous Peanut Butter and Jelly (Jam) sandwich.  Imagine how blown away I was. I took a while to get over my reaction to the peanut butter: what was this creamy, buttery, nutty spread that made bread taste like cake? And, wait a minute, Peanut Butter and Jelly. PBJ. That's what those kids on TV have all the time.  Cool!

And so began my love affair with PBJ which lasted about six years. Needless to say, after that sleepover, I bugged my mum to buy peanut butter for us. She acquiesced -- she couldn't bear the many, many "please, mummy, please" pleas any longer, I guess.

As I grew, I kinda ate less PBJ sandwiches though. Breakfast became a jumbo cup of thick, sweet tea and nothing more. But, if you've read this blog often enough, you know how many random cravings I have all them time and lately it's been for a PBJ: a think chunky layer of peanut butter and layered with Jam. I love store bought peanut butter; jam, not so much (they're always just too sweet). But I decided to make my own: both peanut butter and jam. I'm on vacation from work for a couple of weeks and I wanted to stay home and chill with my pal, Mojo the Dachshund.

This first installment (Part I) is making the peanut butter. It's simple and actually a lot easier than getting dressed, putting on make-up, driving to the store and buying a jar. All you need are some skinned peanuts and salt and a little sugar (optional). The sugar is optional as some peanuts are sweater than others and also because it depends on how sweet you want your PB. I  added just a tbsp  sugar as I prefered the  nutty flavour to stand out.

Homemade peanut butter

400g peanuts, skinned

4 g fine salt

2 tbsp sugar (optional)

Roast the peanuts in the oven till they're lightly toasted (just slightly brown). Add the sugar, salt and sugar in the blender and ... blend, blend, blend. The nuts will first be blended to powder and then with more blending, their natural oils will be released and the mixture will form  a paste. More blending and you will get your buttery treasure.  TIP: You may want to add the roasted nuts bit by bit (three batches) especially if yours is not a high powered blender (mine wasn't either). If you prefer your PB chunky, set some nuts aside and add them towards the end of the blending process).  Oh, and blending takes a while: about 30 mins with my ratty blender. So, while waiting for the peanuts to transform into butter, check out some PB trivia here.

Next up: Home made jam!