Swedish Meatballs, Celeriac & Spinach Rice

Meal 10 - Jan 30th - Swedish Meatballs, Celeriac & Spinach Rice

Big night tonight. Not just because a romantic weekend away meant this was my first opportunity to cook a 15 minute meal for a week, but also because Lolz' fave football team, Norwich, were playing Tottenham and if things went badly, Lolz would not be getting any dinner. I decided to go for a quick, calming  pre-dinner run, but ended getting caught up amongst the Fulham fans making their way to Craven Cottage. Not the best start to the evening. And not only that, for once my food processor stood redundant as I picked possibly the only recipe in 15 minute meals which requires neither fine chopping, slicing, grating, whipping, liquidizing or indeed any of the other seven as yet unknown function which said processor can apparently perform. I was a little nervous.

Shortly after beginning my prep, Norwich scored the opening goal of the game. Despite Lolz' (admittedly rather sheepish) celebrations I put it out of my mind and, unlike the Tottenham defenders, focussed on the task at hand. First job was putting on the rice and I decided to test out the Jamie method of using 2 cups boiling water for one cup rice. Since the rice was the standard wholegrain stuff that takes 20-25 minutes to cook, I knew that the 15 minute cooking time was out the window... The peeling and chopping of the celeriac was also a more laborious task than expected. Anyway, before too long the celeriac was frying away, rice cooking and meatballs sizzling, and I psyced myself up for the next task: flambeing the meatballs! I was slightly dubious given the proximity of the cupboards to the stove, and having never flambed before I was unsure how big the flames would be, and exactly how big a danger there was of setting fire to the kitchen. Results can be seen below.

Thankfully Gareth Bale scored a spectacular equaliser for Tottenham so Lolz did get her dinner, although (secretly sulking at the late equaliser I imagine) did say that she would have appreciated some kind of cold yoghurt/ cranberry based sauce on the side. Personally, given that I did not set fire to the kitchen, and that the finished dish was one of the tastiest so far, I thought it was a bloody triumph.

Lolz gave the dish 9/10. Difficulty rating 5/10 - just need to make sure you regurlarly stir the celeriac to prevent burnage, and give the meatballs an occasional shake.