Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Almondigas at Misua

Late last week, I made almondigas and misua soup. Almondigas are meatballs, and misua is a fine rice wheat vermicelli noodle, which is very fine and delicate. It is slightly off-white in colour, as you can see in the photo.

This is a very easy recipe. When I was in grad school, I had experimented with ovo-versions of this soup. Click here and here for a couple of meatless examples.

As for what I made last week, here is that recipe.

Almondigas:

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1/2 c onion, chopped finely (I ♥ my Cuisinart mini-prep processor!)
  • 1/4 c celery, chopped finely
  • 2-3 tbsp flour
  • 1 egg
  • salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients and form into balls. Fry or bake until done, then drain and set aside. (Note: my mum has been able to just drop them into boiling water, but the two times I tried doing this, my meatballs fell apart. I wish I knew what I was doing wrong here. If you've any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.)

Misua soup:

  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • garlic, chopped (I love garlic, and I tend to use a lot. I'd say no less than two cloves)
  • Your choice of: zucchini/courgette (3 small), patola (1), sayote (1), or some other similar squash-like item, sliced
  • Patis (or salt) and pepper to taste
  • 6 cups water or broth of choice
  • 3 bundles (ca. 100 g each, I think) misua noodles
  • Almondigas
  • Egg (optional)

Sauté garlic and onion in oil until softened. Add the squash and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the water or broth and the patis/salt and pepper and bring to a gentle boil. Add the almondigas and the misua, carefully stirring to ensure the noodles don't stick to each other. Because the noodles are very fine and delicate, they won't need any more than 2-3 minutes to cook. Drop the eggs whole into the gently boiling soup, cover and remove from heat, allowing the eggs to cook. Alternatively, you can medium-boil the eggs separately, and then cut them in half and serve a half with each bowl of soup.

That's it. It's one of my favourite comfort foods when the weather is cold outside.

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