Recipe of Meatballs in orange sauce with rice pilaf

Ingredients

• 100 g of basmati rice.
• 1 small scallion.
• 1 or 2 bay leaves.
• a pinch of garlic powder.
• 2 tablespoons of EVOO.
• 250 ml of clear chicken broth or water and salt.
• a pinch of salt.

Directions

1. 1

   In a large bowl, put the meat, the shredded sausages, the drained breadcrumbs, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, the chopped parsley, a little salt (note that soy sauce also provides salt), freshly ground pepper to taste and one of the eggs. Mix well with a silicone spatula or with your hands and add the other egg, continue mixing until you have a homogeneous mass.

2. 2

   Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and reserve it while we advance the sauce. To do this, chop the carrots, scallions and peppers and sauté them in a saucepan with 3 or 4 tablespoons of EVOO, the remaining tablespoon of soy sauce and a pinch of salt. Cover the pan and leave it on medium-low heat (4/12) so that the vegetables can be poached.

3. 3

   While the vegetables are being cooked, we take the opportunity to shape the meatballs, pass them through breadcrumbs and fry them in very hot oil just enough to brown them on the outside. We reserve them in a dish with absorbent paper.

4. 4

   Strain the oil from frying the meatballs and add two tablespoons of it to the vegetables.

5. 5

   When the vegetables are tender, turn up the heat and add the orange juice and broth, wait for it to boil and keep it boiling for about 5 minutes to reduce it a little. You should make “chup chup” not boil in spurts.

6. 6

   After 5 minutes, grind the sauce. What I do is pass it through a sieve first, grind the vegetables first and add the strained broth little by little until the sauce has the texture we like at home. Vegetables don't always release the same amount of juices. If there is any broth left over, at the end of the recipe I'll explain how to use it.

7. 7

   Once we have the sauce with the texture we want, we test it to see if it needs to be rectified with salt or if we have to add a little sugar because the orange is too acidic and we return it to the pot.

8. 8

   We threw in the meatballs that we had reserved and left it on low heat (3/12) for 15 to 20 minutes.

9. 9

   As soon as the meatballs are finished, we prepare the rice pilaf express.

10. 10

    Heat the broth for a minute and a half at 800 W and set it aside. In the meantime, chop the scallion.

11. 11

    In a microwave-safe bowl (preferably made of borosilicate glass, such as Pyrex®) we put the EVOO, the chopped onion and a pinch of salt and cook it in the micro 800 W for two minutes without covering it.

12. 12

    Take it out, add the rice, give it a few turns so that it gets wet in the oil, add the bay leaves, the garlic powder and the hot broth and return to the microwave for 10 minutes at 800 W.

13. 13

    When finished, we let it rest in the microwave without opening it for 4 or 5 minutes. Take it out and stir it a little with a fork so that the grains are very loose.