Villa Victoria Blog

Reverse Oregon Trail

Saturday I am heading out from Oregon to the East in a car.  I am taking dried apricots, plums, walnuts, cashews and 3.5 pounds of beef jerky made from a beautiful 11.77 pound hunk of grass fed bottom round from Bill the Butcher in Madison Valley, Seattle.

      

Sopa de Albóndigas / Meat Ball Soup

One of my mother’s adages to indicate that something or someone was old was, “…that’s been around since the year they invented soup”. This phrase would always conjure a picture of two scraggley-haired primitives, huddled around a clay pot filled with water and hot rocks, discovering that they could put bits of meat and grains into that water. This soup is a variation of that first soup, except that it has been refined by the addition of mint, tomatoes and bell pepper.

1 lb.      Ground beef
¼         Onion, minced
2           Garlic cloves, minced
¼ c.      Medium grain rice
1           Egg
1T         Fresh mint, minced
1 t         Salt
¾         Onion, diced
2-3        Garlic cloves, minced
1           Large bell pepper, diced
14 oz.   Canned diced tomatoes
2 t         Salt
2 T        Olive oil
2 qt.      Water

In a large bowl, add all the ingredients for the meatballs and mix thoroughly. Form into smallish 1-inch balls and set aside on a platter. In a large stock pot bring the water to a rolling boil. Drop the meatballs in, a few at a time. Don’t put too many in at once – you want to keep the water boiling at all times. When all the meatballs are in the water, turn the heat down to simmer, enough to maintain surface activity with the lid askew. Simmer for 15 minutes. While the meatballs are cooking: In a pan sauté the onion in the olive oil over medium high heat until it becomes translucent. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute. Add the chopped bell pepper and stir for another minute. Add the tomatoes and salt, stir and let quietly sizzle until the meatballs are ready. Add the sauté pan ingredients to the stock pot. Simmer for 5 minutes and ladle into bowls.

In Mexico, en famille, it is de riguer to serve no more than 3 albondigas, not two and not four. Three meatballs and a lot of liquid in a wide shallow soup bowl is soul-satisfying.  Serves 4-6.