Sometimes I find that my husband can get fixated on a meal and he won’t want anything else – I often find this with meatballs and pasta. So the other night I thought that I would mix it up and create something a little different – a chicken meatball… And when he sat down for dinner he asked ‘do these actually have meat in them?’
Argh! Yes, chicken is a meat – and I have just spent the last 30 minutes preparing this delicious meal for you. Do not even get me started on the trouble I had with the blunt meat slicers. Oh well, at least Mr Moo loved them. And demonstrated this love by eating 12 meatballs and two scoops of semolina – so it proves that kiddies also give this meal a thumbs up.
CHICKEN MEATBALLS WITH SEMOLINA
10 grams porcini mushrooms
1/2 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cups sourdough breadcrumbs
1/4 cup of milk
500 grams of chicken mince
1 egg
2 tablespoons of thyme leaves
1/2 cup grated parmasan
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons of butter
4 french eschallots
200 grams swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
200 grams chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup creme fraiche
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup chicken stock
3 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup of semolina
1/2 cup single pouring cream
sea salt and black pepper
To make the semolina, place the milk, butter and chicken stock in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Gradually whisk in the semolina, continuing to whisk until it thickens. Remove from the heat and then add the cream, salt and pepper and whisk to combine. Cover and keep warm.
Place the porcini mushrooms and boiling water in a bowl and allow to stand for 10 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft. Drain and chop the mushrooms to your food processor.
Place the breadcrumbs and milk in a bowl and mix to combine. Add the mince, egg, half the thyme, parmesan, porcini and season. Using wet hands, roll the meatballs into balls.
Heat the oil and butter in a pan, add the meatballs and brown slightly before adding the eschallots, mushrooms, remaining thyme and seasoning. Once the meatballs appear to be cooked through, deglaze the pan with the white wine and allow to simmer for 2 minutes before stirring through the creme fraiche.
Serve the meatballs and mushroom sauce upon the semolina.
