I Tried To Make Chocolates (and it almost worked)!

So there are two recipes today: my own home minced meatballs and some chocolate filling that I used in my disastrous first attempt at chocolate making.

Meatballs rock, bacon meatballs rock more.

Having a mincer is awesome!

Ingredients for meatballs:

• 500g pork
• 200g bacon
• 100g flour
• 2 eggs
• BBQ mix: 1tsp worcestire sauce, 1tsp soy sauce, 1tsp smoked paprika, chopped spring onions, 2tsp garlic paste, 1tsp salt, 1tbsp pepper

Ingredients for sauce:

• 1.5tbsp garlic
• 1tbsp basil
• 1tsp mustard
• 1tsp smoked paprika
• 400g tomato passata
• 300g broad beans
• 200g spinach
• salt and pepper to taste

Utensils:

• mincer
• chopping board and knife
• pan

Recipe:

1. Put the meats through the mincer. Mix in the other meatball ingredients and rest.
2. Roll your meatballs as you heat some butter in a pan.
3. Pan fry the meatballs on all sides to seal them. Put aside as they seal.
4. Add the basil, garlic, mustard and paprika to the butter and stir into a paste.
5. Reintroduce the meatballs. Pour passata on top. Allow to simmer.
6. When the meatballs are cooked through, add the beans and spinach, turn off the heat and cover. Leave to finish in its own heat.
7. Serve over pasta, gnocchi or noodles.

Filling for chocolates, or for angrily licking off the spoon when your chocolates fall apart.

A friend has taken a course in chocolate making and is great at it. I’ve been watching a bit from the sidelines and bought myself a chocolate mould the other day, to give it a go. So my first attempt at chocolates looked like this.

The second attempt went a bit better.

But the filling is DELICIOUS.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rhubarb
• 1 cup mango
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup icing sugar

Utensils:

• chopping board and knife
• pot and wooden spoon
• blender

Recipe:

1. Clean, peel and chop the rhubarb and mango. Put in the pot on a low heat
2. Once softened through, add the white sugar, keep heating and stirring, as though you were making jam.
3. Add the icing sugar slowly and stir in. Take off the heat and leave to rest.
4. Blend everything together. There should not be many lumps left anyway.

I put this in some white chocolates with walnut and some dark chocolates with a bit of brazil in the centre. 😀

TTFN and Happy Hunting!

 

For help starting out homemaking, check out The ESSENTIAL Beginner Homemaker’s Guide. For help budgeting all your everday and not-so-everyday essentials, from food to transport to clothes, check out On A Budget: The good homemaker’s guide to economizing.