Hot and sour turkey meatball soup

It's been a while between drinks. I've been busy with a stock of distractions, including a big move to Sydney to live with the lovely Tobino. You may remember him from a previous blog about Nigella Lawson's sausage chicken of the future.

http://povalicious.blogspot.com/2008/08/sausage-chicken-at-tobinos.html

We're in an Annandale cottage with garden care of an exhaustive seven week rental ad slog. The place has shaped up into a cosy home, with lots of mates nearby and food adventures by the minute. The only major flaw is that planes seem to use us as a landing strip, but otherwise, divine.

Our Lupercalia lily, bought on St Valentines during the house hunt, a Chateau Tobeleash mascot:

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Tobes and I have been mucking about with fusion food lately; Welsh rarebit lasagne and Persian spice cake being our crowning achievements to date (recipes to follow).

This is my Thai/Italian contribution, which fits into the Povalicious genre, because it is genuinely thrifty and pretty straightforward once you relax and just cook it. Italian meatballs cooked in a Thai way meet Thai soup with Italian herbs. It's a mish mash of the two cooking styles on a couple of levels, with a bit of Vietnamese influence thrown in. A bit like me; it doesn't really belong anywhere except wherever it is at the time.

Wank wank, anyway, I rustled it up one night when I was half out of my mind on Codral tablets and deadlines and needed a soothing, healing, invigorating, revitalising something something. I also had the following cheap turkey mince handy, care of Woolworths or Coles or one of the many purveyors of cheap turkey meat.

Soup:

3 tbsp tom yum paste

2 tbsp tomato sauce

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 small onion, sliced as thinly as you can

2 carrots, sliced thinly

1 litre stock

2 tbsp plain yoghurt

Small handful vietnamese mint*

Small handful basil*

Small handful parsley*

Meatballs:

500g turkey mince

Small handful oregano, finely chopped

Small handful parsley, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp salt and pepper

1 egg

4 slices bread, broken into tiny little bits. The process of doing this is relaxing. If the crust is hard, cut it off first. Don't chuck it though - eat it. Toast it and slather it with butter or something. It'll make your hair curly or straighter or blonder or 23% stronger according to a laboratory.

Lots of vegetable oil, to fill a deep frypan about 2 inches high

Slap all the turkey ingredients together (bad Freudian slip), roll them into tablespoon sized balls and put them out on a tray or similar flat surface so they don't glue together. Heat a deep frypan and add vegetable oil 2 inches high. Put on medium heat; if you test it with a bread cube it should stay in the middle of the oil, sizzling nicely. If it is too low, it will sink to the bottom, if it is too high, it will start to burn.

Add all the soup ingredients except the yoghurt and fresh herbs to a big heavy bottomed pot. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer while you fry the meatballs.

Get a plate ready, covered in 2 or 3 layers of paper towel. Add meatballs to hot oil in batches of 6 or so, swirling with a slotted spoon, cook for 2-3 minutes or until just nicely browned, then remove and drain on paper.

Ladle hot soup into bowls, split the meatballs between them, then top with the herbs and a generous dollop of yoghurt, a twist of pepper, and maybe a drizzle of fish sauce. Serves 2 as a generous dinner type thing, or 4 as a starter (but who would go to this much trouble for a starter?!).

*I used these herbs because that was what was looking bushy in my backyard garden. Any combination of the following will also do nicely:

- 2 fresh curry leaves (add at the start of the soup)

- 2 fresh kaffir lime leaves (add at the start of the soup)

- Half a bunch of coriander, chopped

- Half a bunch of basil, leaves torn off by hand

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Pizza

Tonight has promised a rare relaxing evening at home for Povalicia. Picture me, wandering around the house singing along to Cyndi Lauper really loudly and badly, bathing in sea salt, lavender and sage fresh from my garden, dosing my skin up with shea butter and patting purry appreciative cats while I fuck around on the internets and watch telly. Lovely.

Still, I am somewhat listless and incompletely satisfied. I spend most of my days happy, full of whimsy and delight, but nothing sates me fully. Not even the excellent watermelon and tomato juice I downed today, or the beef samosa, or the two delicious plums, or the surprisingly perfect service station double cheese, steak and bacon pie, or even the gluten free hazelnut cookie to end all cookies of all time. Not even discovering the world's natural cosmetics mecca in an MGM grand style palace in downtown Marrickville. Not even a fabulous day of random adventures and laffs with my dear friend Tobin, bless.

Before I start getting too far into my Mick Jagger or Peggy Lee impersonations, I've decided to try posting another episode of my food blog. The therapeutic value of the catharsis of literary release is often touted, so let's give it a go.

I've also decided to make myself a pizza. Killing two birds with one stone, I'm now blogging about it, but I'm using pics and a recipe from some old pizza I made months ago. Partly because I can't be bothered taking any pics, and partly because I've got bags under my eyes from here to next Tuesday.

Pizza is very simple and magical. Especially when you're feeling a little empty and needing some fill. It's also cheap as, which makes it most eligible for povalicious status.

Now, I won't waste your time, because I don't, so I'll start off with the simplest version, which I make with lebanese bread, fresh from my freezer.* But if you'd fancy a try at doing it from scratch, which isn't that much harder, and is quite relaxing and gratifying once you've pulled it off like a champion, see my end notes.**

2 lebanese breads

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

8 slices pancetta

1 bunch parsley

1 cup grated mozzarella

1 cup grated tasty cheese

1/2 cup grated parmesan

50g gorgonzola or blue castello cheese

2 potatoes, sliced as thinly as you possibly can

Olive oil, salt, pepper

Preheat your oven as hot as it will go. The hotter the better - pizza needs to cook fast. If you have a pizza oven which will go to 400 degrees plus, all the better (except that in all of my jealousy I will come to your house and steal your oven).

Lay the lebanese breads out onto a tray, sprinkle with olive oil, garlic and little daubs of blue cheese. Top with sliced potato, pancetta slices, cheese, then finely chopped parsley. Add a sprinkle of salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Cook for 20 minutes or so until golden brown and the potato is soft.

Eat with relish and abandon. Feel better. Go and have a bath.

Other scrumptious topping suggestions:

(Please follow the K.I.S.S. rule and don't ever put pineapple or barbecue sauce on a pizza unless you want me to slap you)

#1 - 2 very ripe tomatoes, chopped, mixed with 1 tub of tomato paste, 2 tbsp olive oil and a handful of fresh oregano. Top with cheese and maybe more oregano. Cook.

#2 - As for #1, but before you put the cheese on, add some peeled green prawns, squid rings, raw shucked mussels and pieces of white fish.

#3 - Olive oil on base, then finely sliced potato, then cheese. Cook, then top with fresh parsley. This also works well without the cheese, with a light drizzle of olive oil and sprinkling of salt instead.

#4 - Olive oil on base, then roasted pumpkin, roasted garlic, cubed fetta, kalamata olives, then cheese. Cook, then top with lots of torn basil.

#5 - My all time favourite, the god of all pizzas and inspiration for this recipe:

Olive oil, garlic, oregano and gorgonzola cheese on base, then pancetta, then cheese, then more oregano. Cook in hot oven. Top with really fresh ripe figs that have been sliced and soaked in some delicious vinegar, and lots of rocket. You will die and go to heaven. But then you'll come back again, with a smile on your face, slightly bow legged. Yum!

Hot tips

* I use lebanese bread for pizzas because someone told me to once and all of the pre-made pizza bases that I have tried have been shit. And they are expensive. Forget them. The only exception to this rule I can think of is a really thin pane di casa one I found once, and honestly, lebanese bread is cheaper and better. If you freeze them you can always make pizza quickly whenever you're feeling forlorn or simply ravenous, or both, as they defrost in about 5 minutes in the oven. You can almost always get it cheap from your greengrocer.

** To make a pizza base from scratch:

Make a bread dough, leave it to prove, spread it out on a tray, add toppings, cook in a hot oven. That's it.

Jamie will tell you how it's done, he knows much more about this than I do. http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-and-pizza/pizza-dough

Or, if I have no yeast or time, I make a scone-like dough. Basically, for 1 pizza, get 1 cup of flour, 2 tbsp of butter and crumb them together with your fingers until combined. Add just enough milk to bring it together as a firm dough, then knead it quickly on a pile of flour until smooth (not too long). Spread it really thinly on your tray, covered with alfoil (otherwise this base sticks to the tray like a mf). Cook it in your hot oven for about 5 minutes, then take it out and let it cool before you add your toppings.

*** Pizza may make you fat. This is not so bad. My only other disclaimer about this whole recipe is, as you can plainly see, pizza can make you angry. Don't be angry. Be careful, people. Look after each other.

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