Recipes-not-recipes #27

Fluffy lamb meatballs + pickle-spiked rice.

I must preface this recipe-not-recipe with the fact that I was searching for something to cook last Friday night, Googled Molly Baz and saw a picture of herby meatballs with pickly rice and upon not being able to gain access to said recipe I made it up myself. I think this is truly how most recipes are formed, layering ideas upon other ideas, but I do think it’s important to pay homage to where you found the original inspiration. I loved the idea of adding pickle juice to rice – it gives that sweet and sour sushi rice taste - but I didn’t have dill pickles, only the remnants of fluorescent yellow pickled daikon floating in a sweet brine. I’d been looking for a way to use it up, so in it went.

The meatballs are honestly how I’ve always made them – part inspired by Alison Roman’s Goodbye Meatballs, and part my own twist which inevitably swaps ingredients (ricotta for yoghurt) and immeasurably changes quantities. The true key to fluffy, juicy, tender meatballs is basting, something I only discovered last week because there was a glorious amount of fat and oil collecting at the bottom of the cast iron pan that was simply begging to be spooned.