Abel & Cole have been selling delicious, creamy Buffalo Mozzarella from Laverstoke Park for a while now. So I figured it will only be a short wait until they start serving the Buffalo meat too.
I heard about delicious meat partly from my short stint working at Abel & Cole, but mostly from the Real Food Festival that happens annually in Earls Court. If you go, you are likely to find a Laverstoke Park stand with a live Buffalo in the court for the kids to feed. At the stand you can try some of their buffalo burgers, which are really juicy and full of sweet flavour. The best things about buffalo meat is the fact that its leaner than beef, yet it doesn't have a game-y flavour that you tend to get with meats like Ostrich or Venison.
The burgers are available in Waitrose, and now the mince, diced buffalo and the burgers are available in Abel & Cole. The farm shop also sells buffalo steaks and other cuts. I'm quite keen on trying the steaks, but the online farm shop delivers using a courier, so I've been waiting for a day when I can guarantee I'll be at home to receive the delivery.
So I found this dish browsing through Jamie in America and decided to try to make it. I've made a few dishes over the past few months from this book so part of me really feels like I'm in real life Julie and Julia. I have to say though if I were going to make every single recipe from one cookbook, I think a Jamie Oliver book would be perfect for me- no strange, unobtainable ingredients or equipment in order to get the job done. And I would still be able to prepare most of the meals after my regular day job.
Anyway, back to the dish at hand. These delicious Buffalo balls are stuffed with balls of cheddar cheese so they ooze out of the balls during cooking. I think it's the cheese that created this thin yellow film of oil on top of my sauce. I didn't try to fix it as the end result worked well on the sauce.
It's hard to tell the size of the balls from the picture, I guess the one below gives you a good idea of perspective. My dish is ~10 inches across, so these balls were bigger than usual- the size of my fist actually! So I only served two for myself, and three for my boyfriend. Which meant we had leftovers for the next day, so on the first day I sat them on top of rice and on the second they were on top of creamy mash, recipe of which can be found here.
for the sauce
1 Onion, diced
1 Pepper (red or yellow), chopped
5 cloves Garlic, finely sliced
2 red Chillies, chopped
pinch smoked Paprika
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp Ketchup
3 tbsp cider Vinegar
3 tbsp Molasses, or brown Sugar
1 tbsp dijon Mustard
200ml hot Coffee
tin of Tomatoes, whole
bunch of fresh flat leafed Parsley
Recipe
Start with the meatballs. Heat oven. In a bowl mix together all the meatball ingredients except the cheese. Using clean hands, divide mixture into 8 fist sized rounds, then make a pocket and put a ball of cheese in the middle, close the pocket. Alternatively, divide mixture into 16 pieces, take one piece, flatten on your palm, put a ball of cheese on top, take another piece to place over the cheese, cup hands together and smooth out to form a ball. Put all balls into a large oiled roasting dish, drizzle with oil and put into hot oven for 30 minutes.
Fry onions, peppers, garlic, chillies and paprika until tender. Stir in liquid ingredients (Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, vinegar, coffee, sugar, mustard, tomatoes) and bring to boil. Simmer for 20 minutes.
When balls are ready, remove from oven, skim fat, and pour sauce on top. Return to oven for 5 minutes. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the top and serve on mash or rice. Eat.
I heard about delicious meat partly from my short stint working at Abel & Cole, but mostly from the Real Food Festival that happens annually in Earls Court. If you go, you are likely to find a Laverstoke Park stand with a live Buffalo in the court for the kids to feed. At the stand you can try some of their buffalo burgers, which are really juicy and full of sweet flavour. The best things about buffalo meat is the fact that its leaner than beef, yet it doesn't have a game-y flavour that you tend to get with meats like Ostrich or Venison.
The burgers are available in Waitrose, and now the mince, diced buffalo and the burgers are available in Abel & Cole. The farm shop also sells buffalo steaks and other cuts. I'm quite keen on trying the steaks, but the online farm shop delivers using a courier, so I've been waiting for a day when I can guarantee I'll be at home to receive the delivery.
So I found this dish browsing through Jamie in America and decided to try to make it. I've made a few dishes over the past few months from this book so part of me really feels like I'm in real life Julie and Julia. I have to say though if I were going to make every single recipe from one cookbook, I think a Jamie Oliver book would be perfect for me- no strange, unobtainable ingredients or equipment in order to get the job done. And I would still be able to prepare most of the meals after my regular day job.
Anyway, back to the dish at hand. These delicious Buffalo balls are stuffed with balls of cheddar cheese so they ooze out of the balls during cooking. I think it's the cheese that created this thin yellow film of oil on top of my sauce. I didn't try to fix it as the end result worked well on the sauce.
It's hard to tell the size of the balls from the picture, I guess the one below gives you a good idea of perspective. My dish is ~10 inches across, so these balls were bigger than usual- the size of my fist actually! So I only served two for myself, and three for my boyfriend. Which meant we had leftovers for the next day, so on the first day I sat them on top of rice and on the second they were on top of creamy mash, recipe of which can be found here.
The most intriguing part of this dish is the sauce, which is made from a standard spicy tomato sauce but with the addition of sweetened black coffee. It's important to get the sweetness right so it compliments the meat properly. I guess it works in the same way that dark chocolate sauce does with venison. But the coffee flavour in this dish is subtle, it adds an extra dimension rather than overtaking the palate.
Ingredients
for the balls
1lb Buffalo mince
1 Onion, diced, then fried until softened
olive Oil
1/2 tsp dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp dried Oregano
pinch of Cumin seeds, crushed in pestle & mortar
handful of Breadcrumbs
1 large Egg
100g Cheddar Cheese, grated
Salt & Pepper
for the sauce
1 Onion, diced
1 Pepper (red or yellow), chopped
5 cloves Garlic, finely sliced
2 red Chillies, chopped
pinch smoked Paprika
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp Ketchup
3 tbsp cider Vinegar
3 tbsp Molasses, or brown Sugar
1 tbsp dijon Mustard
200ml hot Coffee
tin of Tomatoes, whole
bunch of fresh flat leafed Parsley
Recipe
Start with the meatballs. Heat oven. In a bowl mix together all the meatball ingredients except the cheese. Using clean hands, divide mixture into 8 fist sized rounds, then make a pocket and put a ball of cheese in the middle, close the pocket. Alternatively, divide mixture into 16 pieces, take one piece, flatten on your palm, put a ball of cheese on top, take another piece to place over the cheese, cup hands together and smooth out to form a ball. Put all balls into a large oiled roasting dish, drizzle with oil and put into hot oven for 30 minutes.
Fry onions, peppers, garlic, chillies and paprika until tender. Stir in liquid ingredients (Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, vinegar, coffee, sugar, mustard, tomatoes) and bring to boil. Simmer for 20 minutes.
When balls are ready, remove from oven, skim fat, and pour sauce on top. Return to oven for 5 minutes. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the top and serve on mash or rice. Eat.
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