Cameroonian meatballs with spaghetti

Meatballs, glorious meatballs! Although I'm raised on Swedish meatballs, I'm an adventurous kind of person and don't mind trying meaty balls from other cultures. The Italian ones in a herby tomato sauce were the first non-native ones that I cooked. These were followed by spicy Cajun meatballs and boiled, then grilled Japanese ones. I even made so called Swedish meatballs advertised on Facebook, cooked in a creamy sauce and mixed with spaghetti. Let me tell you, that is not how Swedish meatballs are made and the person posting that recipe needs to get their facts right. Don't get me wrong, they weren't bad, but that's not how they are made. No no no and no again.

Over the years, I have used minced pork, beef and a mixture of the two, venison and finally chicken mince. Venison and beef meatballs are my favourites. If I use pork, it needs to be lean mince. I have become fussy as I got older and no longer tolerate too much fat.

Anyway, today I wanted to make something a little bit different and went to West Africa for inspiration. Looking at the ingredients, these delights from Cameroon don't appear to differ too much from their Italian cousins, but strangely enough the flavour was quite different, although I can't put my finger on the flavour. Could it be the stock cube that features in both the mince and the sauce? It is the only thing I can think of. The recipe called for a Maggie's stock cube, but I used normal beef stock from the supermarket.

Although I normally cook meatballs for an army and freeze them in portions, I only had a small amount of mince to play with this time. 

For this small batch of meatballs, I used:

1/2 onion, finely chopped

300 g lean beef mince

1 egg

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

a handful of breadcrumbs

1 beef stock cube

salt & pepper

parsley

Tomato sauce:

1 tin chopped tomatoes

the other half of the onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 beef stock cube

basil

1. Get all the meatball ingredients out.

I debated whether to cut the egg out, as I knew from experience that it wasn't needed. I did however decide to follow the recipe this time and left it in.

2. After chopping the onion and garlic, pop everything into a mixing bowl.

3. Mix well and roll into small balls.

4. Fry the meatballs on medium heat in a little oil.

5. Cook until just done. Remember that they will continue cooking in the sauce, although not for long. You still don't want to over cook them at this stage.

6. Get the ingredients out for the sauce.

7. After chopping the onion and garlic, soften them in a little oil and add the chopped tomatoes and crumbled stock cube.

8. Add basil and cook until the sauce has reduced to a chunky sauce.

9. If you don't want to eat the meal straight away, you can freeze it. Put the meatballs in a container.

10. Add the sauce and pop the container into the freezer once it has cooled down.

I did this and enjoyed the meal a week later.

11. When you have defrosted the meatballs, pour the contents into an oven tray and warm it up in the oven for approximately 15 minutes at 200 degrees, until the meatballs are hot. Should you choose to serve on the same day as you make the meal, simply pour the sauce over the meatballs in the frying pan and cooking for 5 minutes to finish it off.

12. Serve and enjoy.

The recipe said that these meatballs s¨chould be served with pasta, rice or bread. Naturally I chose pasta, as it is The Law in our house and I couldn't possibly break The Law. Never break The Law. The Law is there for a reason.

Looking at this plate of food, I would have guessed the meatballs were Italian, but the taste was different. Apart from the flavour, they appeared to be lighter than other ones I have made and that's very strange. I really can't explain that. Anyway, they were lovely.