Braised Lamb Meatballs

For one of his classes, Joe had to read the Hungry Planet: What the World Eats book. This book was written by two journalists and is filled with pictures and information about families' eating habits all over the world. It documents what they eat on a weekly basis, where they get their food and how much a week of groceries costs them. I paged through the book and even sat down to watch the TED talk about the couple's travels. Even just the basic information from some of the articles or the TED talk online is very enlightening. It is crazy that one family of eight can live off of $30 for food a week, while another family of four spends $500 a week on beer and processed foods.

Part of the assignment was to make a recipe from the book. Joe chose to make a meatball recipe that was provided from a rural, poor family in the outskirts of Bejing. This family has the mentality that nothing should be wasted and that meat is especially precious. I was able to witness the excellent cooking job done by my fiance and now he can add that to his recipe repertoire for married life. The end result was fresh and delicious. We did end up adding some extra spice to it but it was a relatively easy weeknight meal.

Braised Lamb Meatballs

Ingredients: - 1 lb of lamb, minced or ground (yields about 12 meatballs)
- 1 tbl sp onion
- 1 tbl sp ginger
- 1/2 tbl sp all spice
- 1 egg
- 1 tbl sp cilantro
- 1 tbl sp chicken bouillon
- 1/4 t sp pepper
- 1/4 c white vinegar
- salt to taste

Directions:
1. Combine onion, ginger, all spice powder and salt into the lamb meat. Add egg and knead until ingredients are thoroughly combined.
2. Mold lamb into medium sized meatballs, Boil 6 cups of water and carefully place each meatball into the water.
3. Bring water to medium and simmer the meatballs for 15 minutes.
4. In remaining water, add cilantro, chicken bouillon, pepper and vinegar. Let meatballs sit in the mixture for three minutes.
5. Strain any remaining water and serve. We also added some all spice and pepper to taste. Another option is to add fresh mint leaves.