Meatballs n’ Shrimp Lime: Part One

Even though my daughter is now 24 and has her own small circle of friends, we still enjoy each other’s company tremendously. Last week was no exception.

For the recent long holiday we decided to spend the day together at home, just chilling in my ol’ bed with our computers and cable TV. I know it's a far cry from the days when a lime meant getting dressed and going out somewhere, but with our schedules, we hardly see each other. So, we decided to just do it this way and catch up on everything instead.

As it got closer to mealtime, I knew exactly what I was feeling for, because I had been saving that nice pack of minced chicken from D Market Movers for just such an occasion. I wanted chicken meatballs. Ms Fish Eater however, would get her own special in the form of some lovely steamed shrimp (which I will share in Part two of this post).

Now I have used minced chicken in lots of ways, but with today being a special one, I felt truly inspired to create a different, lighter, yet tasty and spicy version of my traditional beef meatball, which you know I go nuts for. If you think that a chicken meatball is not going to be delicious, I beg to differ. The chicken meatball is in a class of its own and can stand up to the test with its beefier cousin easily. You don’t believe me? Take a look and see…

My thawed, minced chicken was placed into a bowl and I squeezed in a little lime juice.

Now I’m showing pictures of the seasonings I used, because my multitasking self got caught up in seeing about the spaghetti and the tomato sauce to accompany both dishes, so my brain was on overload, hahahaa! 

So, varying amounts of each of these went into the minced chicken, along with an unbeaten egg and 1 cup of dried seasoned breadcrumbs. Everything was easily mixed together with a large spoon.

I then scooped heaping tablespoons of the seasoned chicken and rolled them out to the size of a good lime (or a golf ball), then placed them into a baking dish sprayed with non stick cooking spray. The dish was then covered tightly with aluminium foil and placed in a 400°F oven to bake for 20 minutes.

When they came out, they had increased a little in size, but were still very pale in colour. So, back into the oven they went uncovered for 10 minutes.

See? They’re now a nice light brown. (Don’t worry about the brown spot on the bottom, that’s quite normal.) 

Removed them from the dish and placed them into a bowl, where I couldn’t resist taking a taste… that hot pepper tasted so nice in there!

To serve, I had my bowlful of cooked spaghetti all ready with some warm and flavoured tomato sauce. A light sprinkling of some Parmesan cheese to top it off, and voila!

Care for a bite?

This dish was so tasty… dare I say that the beef was not missed? I’m serious. And if you’d like to try it yourself, just email me for the full recipe at naiclah@gmail.com.

Thanks for letting me share this today, and you can definitely  look forward to part two of the meatballs and shrimp lime (coming very soon). Take care of yourselves my friends, and doh forget to mind de pot!