Post 220: Haloumi Meatballs with Greek Potatoes

It feels like ages since I've done some proper cooking. In some ways though, the onset on winter is nice; it means more roast dinners and more one-pot-slow-cook type cooking, which are both favourites. I'm not sure it quite offsets the dark nights and wet weather.

I was introduced to the concept of greek potatoes by a friend of mine after I'd taken him some of my crop. He'd made Greek potatoes with them, and I was so enamoured of his suggestion that I was determined to have a go. Recipe:
- Waxy potatoes, (peeled is the normal way, but I like the skins), cut in to pieces ~1" across
- Place potatoes in a tray, with a very good glug of olive oil
- 2 tea-spoons of dried oregano, the juice of half a lemon and salt and pepper
- Add water so the potatoes are almost covered
- Oven @200c for about an hour and a half, until the water has evapourated/soaked in to the potatoes.

They didn't look particularly nice at the start, but because of the water, the edges didn't go hard like roasties. Here they are at the end:

 To go with this, I needed something else suitably Greek and I came up with meatballs. I'll declare these a success from the off now; but I'm really no idea how authentic these were or if this is how you should cook a meatball. But it worked for me.

For the sauce:
- 1 onion, chopped and fried slowly
- 2 gloves of garlic added
- 1 chilli, just for a little back ground heat
Once these we cooked and mingled, I then placed in my biggest pot:
- 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
- a 2 to 3 inch squeeze of tomato puree
- a big glass of red wine (a hefty Shiraz)
- 1 medium carrot grated for some body in the auce
- 2 bay leaves and 2 big rosemary twigs (I added these like this to try to get the flavour, but sometimes it can be a bit woody)
And I then put this in the bottom of the oven.

For the meatballs:
- 500gs beef mince
- 100gs haloumi cheese chopped in to 1/4 inch cubes
- Herbs: Chives, thyme and three cloves of roasted garlic
All this I mixed thoroughly and then shaped in to 9 balls, which were approximately golf ball sized. I then got my wok super hot and fried the meatballs until they were just brown all over. This worked reasonably well so long as I did them in small batches. I then put the part cooked meatballs into the sauce. And left them.

This is certainly one to be repeated.