Another kitchen gadget

This is starting to become an expensive habit. First it was the pound of artisanal bacon that I impulsively bought on Saturday morning. No one should let me into Formaggio Kitchen without forcing me to eat breakfast first because I am powerless when surrounded by delicious smells, aka their first BBQ of the season. The cheesemonger was describing this new bacon they have from a farm in Vermont that's made from an heirloom breed, and I was a goner - I bought a pound of it on the spot. Do you know how much a pound of bacon is? It's A LOT. Far more than I expected. Most of it's in the freezer, waiting for the next craving, but we did try some for breakfast on the weekend and it's worth every penny.

But I digress. The bacon incident was a distraction from my original objective - to try a recipe for Pork and Lemongrass Meatballs in Lettuce Cups from the March issue of Bon Appetit. We obviously love Asian flavours, and these ingredients were right up our alley, so I popped over to Savenor's and picked up just over a pound of ground pork. I also picked up over a pound of chicken parts (necks, backs and butts) for only 75 cents, the price of which freaked out the husband but made plenty tasty stock after I roasted the chicken and vegetables.

Anyhow, I followed the instructions for the meatballs using our little 4-cup Cuisinart. Normally this little food processor can handle all of our chopping needs, but not when it comes to a pound of pork that needs additional grinding/blending. It also wasn't able to handle 15-oz of beans (equivalent of one can) when we tried making a white bean pesto dip. Since it was two times in a row that the little model couldn't handle our processing needs, I decided it was time to upgrade to this baby - the Cuisinart 12 cup model, which includes a 4 cup bowl for smaller jobs. I can't wait until it arrives - and if it's as beautiful as it looks in the picture, I think I'll have to find a name for it...

Website

As for the meatballs, they turned out spectacularly well. My only complaint is that the dipping sauce is very salty - I didn't like the ratio of fish sauce to lime juice, but that's easily remedied. I fried them this time since it only took 15 mins and who doesn't love fried food, but I may bake it next time for simplicity and to lower those fat calories. This definitely will be on our future dinner rotation. 

The lettuce cups were so cute!



The full meal - that's sauteed swiss chard in the back