Spanish meatballs

After a long hiatus I have returned to the concept of cooking David a special meal once a week, so that I can try out something new from my many cookbooks. Yesterday was the day and he chose Spanish - in memory of our recent trip to very Australian Ballarat.

I had a few books to choose from but inevitably settled on Claudia Roden's comprehensive The Food of Spain. Well it is indeed comprehensive in its descriptions of the regions and the history and some of the places visited and people encountered, but perhaps not totally comprehensive in terms of recipes - which is not to say that there were not many to choose from.

In the end I chose the dish at left Albóndigas en salsa con picada de almendras - or meatballs in an almond sauce which doesn't sound nearly as exciting. And I chose to accompany it with a rice dish with mushrooms and onions, which was a bit like a risotto. And a mistake I think. I should have stuck to plain rice, because the mushrooms overpowered the more delicate taste of the meatballs.

I have never used almonds in this way before. You fried them with garlic and a slice of bread, crunched it all up in the food processor and then added this to simmering stock and wine flavoured with lemon zest. There was also saffron and yet again I have to say I cannot taste saffron. Does it really have a taste? I know people wax lyrical about it's taste - like truffles - but I think I have yet to taste it. But then again maybe it's taste is subtle and just there in the background. Anyway it definitely gave the sauce a rather nice colour. I think it would all have looked a bit wishy washy if it wasn't there.

In fact the sauce as a whole was delicate - which is not a criticism. I just spoiled it with my rice dish. It was actually rather good. Interestingly and tantalisingly different. There are a few meatballs leftover and I am planning to serve them as a sort of tapas tomorrow when the family comes to dinner. Maybe I will be able to get a more accurate view of the taste then.

The meatballs were also not the usual - they were made from a pork and veal mince, though judging from the colour I suspect the veal was more beef than veal. There were not many flavourings - some garlic I think, and onions. But that was it. There was lemon zest in the sauce as well, but no herbs.

The Spanish are apparently keen on meatballs for their tapas, but they are usually served in a tomato sauce. As we often have an Italian style dish of meatballs in a tomato sauce, I decided the almonds were more definitely Spanish - specifically Catalan apparently.

Oh how I wish I hadn't done the mushroomy rice - not that it wasn't nice too - but definitely not appropriate. But then I can never stop myself doing too much. I should try it again some day - this time with plain rice. It was a case of this definitely not going with that.