It's cold and dreary, time for some nice hot soup
Here's the recipe and what I did

Meatball Vegetable Soup

1/2 med onion diced
2 teaspoons grapeseed oil
2 cloves garlic minced
1 quart chicken broth or water
4 oz tomato sauce or spicy tomato sauce
----Meatballs----
1/2 lb ground beef
1/8 cup short grain rice (handful)
5 leaves mint minced
3 sprigs of cilantro, leaves only minced
Freshly ground black pepper
----Vegetables----
Veggies of your choice I used
5 fingerling potatoes, diced
1 cup diced green beans

In a medium saucepan, cook the diced onion until it becomes
translucent. Add the garlic and cook until it becomes fragrant then
add the broth or water.
Bring broth to the boil while making the meatballs.

Mix the minced mint leaves, cilantro and rice into the ground beef.
Make the meat mixture into tablespoon sized meatballs.
Add the meatballs into the boiling broth slowly one at a time. It is
important to keep the broth at a boil while adding the meatballs.
Once the meatballs are added reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer
for an hour.
During the last half hour add your vegetables and simmer until they
are tender.


One Albondigas Soup recipe I was looking at insisted that adding mint
to the meatball mixture is what makes it Albondigas.
Don't know about that but I'm game to try new things. An old
Albondigas recipe I have calls for cilantro, so I added a little of
each to about half a pound of ground beef.
http://i23.tinypic.com/oggw3d.jpg

I had already started the soup by chopping up half an onion and
cooking it in a little oil until translucent then I added two finely
diced cloves of garlic. I was going to get a picture of this but I
took out my contacts before I chopped the onion and I need to get it
cooked and under liquid, one quart of chicken broth, before I cried my
eyes out.
I then added the meatballs to the boiling liquid. The recipe also
called for adding tomato sauce. All I had was a can of El Pato brand
jalapeno tomato sauce. I added probably half a can of that, just
enough of a kick to be interesting but not overwhelming.
I also added some chopped up fingerling potatoes and fresh green
beans. http://i21.tinypic.com/2u8hyf7.jpg

A steaming hot bowl of soup for a chilly night. Turned out pretty
darned good.
http://i20.tinypic.com/2v321ee.jpg

I really like the addition of the mint to the meatball mixture. It
adds a freshness that sits nicely in the background.

koko
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"There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
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<koko> wrote:

> Meatball Vegetable Soup

Looks like a very nice recipe indeed! I am going to make it one of
these days.

The premise of your recipe is very similar to that of _kololik_, an
Armenian soup.

Kololik is, too, basically a soup with stuffed meatballs. Its
ingredients and the technique of its preparation makes it, however,
different from your (presumably Mexican) albondigas soup. There are
several types of kololik and some are easier to make than the others.
Generally mutton or lamb is used for meat, except for the Shusha kind
where beef is used. (Shusha is a town in the infamous Nagorno-Karabakh
region, over which there has been a war between Armenia and
Azerbaidjan). Generally, kololik is prepared thusly: Make stock from
the bones. Put the meat through the meat grinder twice, or,
traditionally, pound it with a wooden mallet until it turns into a
homogeneous viscous mass. Sometimes meat is pounded after being put
through the grinder. To the minced meat add some of the following:
rice, groats or meal, or cereals like semolina, or flour, eggs, milk,
onions, herbs and spices like parsley, basil, tarragon, pepper,
sometimes Cognac or brandy. Either mix all of this with the meat, or
form egg-sized or larger meatballs and fill them with the above
ingredients or with pieces of butter. To the broth add rice or potatoes
or chestnuts or any combination of the above, and onions and herbs like
parsley and tarragon, and often tomato paste. When the broth is boiling,
add meatballs and cook until they float. Continue cooking until the rice
is ready.

Here's a more structured recipe from a book I have here.

Kololik

500 g (1.1 pounds) beef or lamb from the hindquarter (round or rump),
bone in
3 1/2 tablespoons semolina
50 g (1.8 oz) butter or clarified butter or ghee
2 eggs
500 g (1.1 pounds) potatoes, quartered
2 1/2 - 3 tablespoons rice, cooked
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons parsley
1 tablespoon basil
1-1.5 teaspoons pepper
4 onions, finely diced and fried until golden

Make stock from the bones and strain.
Put the meat through the meat grinder, mix in semolina, eggs, salt
and half of the pepper and beat for 10-15 minutes. Form egg-sized
meatballs.
Now make the filling. Mix the cooked rice, the fried onions, and
half of the herbs. Add salt. Press the filling into the centre of each
of the meatballs.
To the stock add the potatoes, then the tomato paste and bring to the
boil. Add the meatballs and the rest of the herbs and spices. Cook
until the meatballs float and the potatoes are ready. The soup is
sometimes served sprinkled with some parsley.

Victor

On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:40:37 -0400, "Janet" >
wrote:

>
><koko> wrote in message ...
>> It's cold and dreary, time for some nice hot soup
>> Here's the recipe and what I did
>>
>> Meatball Vegetable Soup
>>
>> 1/2 med onion diced
>> 2 teaspoons grapeseed oil
>> 2 cloves garlic minced
>> 1 quart chicken broth or water
>> 4 oz tomato sauce or spicy tomato sauce
>> ----Meatballs----
>> 1/2 lb ground beef
>> 1/8 cup short grain rice (handful)
>
>Sorry for the no-doubt dumb question, but is this cooked rice? Since the
>meatballs simmer for a long time, it occurred to me that it could be
>uncooked.
>
>Sounds deelish!
>
Not dumb at all. The rice is uncooked.
My bad I should have been more specific.

koko
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"There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
George Bernard Shaw

On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:54:12 +0200, (Victor Sack)
wrote:

><koko> wrote:
>
>> Meatball Vegetable Soup
>
>Looks like a very nice recipe indeed! I am going to make it one of
>these days.

Thank you Victor.
>
>The premise of your recipe is very similar to that of _kololik_, an
>Armenian soup.
>
recipe saved

Yes, they are very similar. I will try the kololik also, it looks
delicious.

koko
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updated 10/14

"There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
George Bernard Shaw

On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:56:28 -0700, koko wrote:

>5 leaves mint minced
>3 sprigs of cilantro, leaves only minced

Mint and cilantro together.... in albondigas? That's different.

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Nice recipe.

The best albondigas soup I ever had was when I was working at Edwards Air
Force base in California. In
Boron, north of the rocket test site is Domingo's; an excelent restaurant in
the middle of nowhere.

Unfortunately, many of the restaurants near where I live now (ironically 40
miles from Mexico) serve faily good meatballs in what tastes like dishwater.

Mitch

On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:30:14 -0700, sf wrote:

>On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:56:28 -0700, koko wrote:
>
>>5 leaves mint minced
>>3 sprigs of cilantro, leaves only minced
>
>Mint and cilantro together.... in albondigas? That's different.

I thought it was also until I questioned several of my Hispanic
co-workers and found it is not unusual.

koko
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updated 10/14

"There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
George Bernard Shaw

On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:29:10 -0700, "Mitch Scherer" >
wrote:

>Nice recipe.

Thanks Mitch
>
>The best albondigas soup I ever had was when I was working at Edwards Air
>Force base in California. In
>Boron, north of the rocket test site is Domingo's; an excelent restaurant in
>the middle of nowhere.
>
>Unfortunately, many of the restaurants near where I live now (ironically 40
>miles from Mexico) serve faily good meatballs in what tastes like dishwater.
>
>Mitch
>
So..."get out in the kitchen and rattle those pots and pans"

koko who forgot which song that's from.
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"There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
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koko wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:29:10 -0700, "Mitch Scherer" >
> wrote:
>
>> Nice recipe.
>
> Thanks Mitch
>> The best albondigas soup I ever had was when I was working at Edwards Air
>> Force base in California. In
>> Boron, north of the rocket test site is Domingo's; an excelent restaurant in
>> the middle of nowhere.
>>
>> Unfortunately, many of the restaurants near where I live now (ironically 40
>> miles from Mexico) serve faily good meatballs in what tastes like dishwater.
>>
>> Mitch
>>
> So..."get out in the kitchen and rattle those pots and pans"

I believe that is "shake, rattle and roll". I had that on earlier while
trying to get Ellie tired out before dinner, heh.

>
> koko who forgot which song that's from.
> ---
> http://www.kokoscorner.typepad.com
> updated 10/14
>
> "There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
> George Bernard Shaw


--

Sarah Gray

On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:03:17 -0700, koko wrote:

>On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:30:14 -0700, sf wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:56:28 -0700, koko wrote:
>>
>>>5 leaves mint minced
>>>3 sprigs of cilantro, leaves only minced
>>
>>Mint and cilantro together.... in albondigas? That's different.
>
>I thought it was also until I questioned several of my Hispanic
>co-workers and found it is not unusual.
>
Thanks!

I love albondigas with cilantro only.... so I might like it with mint
too because I love mint. However, hubby absolutely hates mint so I
won't try that anytime soon.

BTW.... I add cilantro at the end. I don't encorporate it in the
meatballs.

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On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:32:48 -0400, Sarah Gray
> wrote:

>koko wrote:
snip to my rock 'n roll my darlin'

>> So..."get out in the kitchen and rattle those pots and pans"
>
>I believe that is "shake, rattle and roll". I had that on earlier while
>trying to get Ellie tired out before dinner, heh.
>
>>
>> koko who forgot which song that's from.

Sarah, I believe you are right, and, you are too young to know this
first hand.

koko
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"There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
George Bernard Shaw

On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:05:28 -0700, koko wrote:

>On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:32:48 -0400, Sarah Gray
> wrote:
>
>>koko wrote:
>snip to my rock 'n roll my darlin'
>
>>> So..."get out in the kitchen and rattle those pots and pans"
>>
>>I believe that is "shake, rattle and roll". I had that on earlier while
>>trying to get Ellie tired out before dinner, heh.
>>
>>>
>>> koko who forgot which song that's from.
>
>Sarah, I believe you are right, and, you are too young to know this
>first hand.
>
She's into "retro", Koko. Young people do that.

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On Fri, 19 Oct 2007 20:31:19 -0700, sf wrote:

>On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:05:28 -0700, koko wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:32:48 -0400, Sarah Gray
> wrote:
>>
>>>koko wrote:
>>snip to my rock 'n roll my darlin'
>>
>>>> So..."get out in the kitchen and rattle those pots and pans"
>>>
>>>I believe that is "shake, rattle and roll". I had that on earlier while
>>>trying to get Ellie tired out before dinner, heh.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> koko who forgot which song that's from.
>>
>>Sarah, I believe you are right, and, you are too young to know this
>>first hand.
>>
>She's into "retro", Koko. Young people do that.

I really appreciate the word "retro" sf. That helps keep me from
feeling so old. ;-)

koko
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"There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
George Bernard Shaw