Mush

« Spicy lamb meatballs, feta-olive cheese sauce and mashed potatoes. »

When you have a toothache, in spite of the dentist telling you twice that there is nothing there, that causes you to daydream about taking a dremel to the offending tooth or chugging down a bottle filled with 400mg ibuprofen to ease the headache, soft foods become really attractive. Brief flashes of fizzing dentures in a glass with efferdent and sucking your meals through a straw do tend to dampen the desire to have all of them removed without ceremony. In a world without teeth, the surest proof of a non-existent or a surly bastard of a malevolent god, one might even reconsider atheism.

In the interest of soft foods, I noticed a tasty and gum-tastic recipe for meatballs and a feta cheese and olive sauce that I had to try. The pureed tomatoes that are mixed with the bread crumbs really had such a nice flavour that it's worth adding to regular meatballs as well. I served them with nice, soft and fluffy mashed potatoes that were proof that the potato ricer is a gadget worthy of my affection. A bit of butter and milk warmed in the microwave then poured over the riced potatoes and mixed with a fork are amazingly smooth. Amusingly, there seems to be a great deal of heated debate online over whether the ricer or a food mill or the old-fashioned masher makes the best mashed potatoes. It's one of those things you'll just have to try for yourself. I'll never make lumpy mashed potatoes again.

Even for those without fantasies involving dentists with pliers, meatballs and mash are perfect winter food and these actually have some taste to them. Although the Finnish 'coffee pudding', made with rolled spelt wheat, milk and coffee, that I tried making the other night looked like vomit and smelled like popcorn so I'm not sure that all soft foods are as appealing as others. :) Now, what do I make for the mobility-challenged man who wrecked his ankle yesterday? Is there such a thing as self-delivering food? Perhaps I could work on strapping a food tray to Otava. :)

spicy lamb meatballs and feta-olive sauce

Makes: about 45 meatballs
Time: about an hour
Source: Ruoka & Viini

spicy lamb meatballs

• 2 dl or 2 cups pureed tomatoes
• 1 dl or 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1,5 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 egg
• 500g or 18oz ground lamb meat (ground beef could also work)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1,5 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped mint
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup chopped pine nuts
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup chopped golden raisins
• ground black pepper

feta-olive sauce

• 150g or 5.5oz feta cheese
• 1 dl or 1 cup chopped green olives
• 250g or 9oz kermaviili/unflavoured yogurt
• zest of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped mint
• ground black pepper

Heat oven to 200C/390F.

Puree tomatoes, mix with bread crumbs and let sit for a minute or two. Add salt, egg, and meat. Mix well. Add the remaining ingredients, mixing well. Form mixture into small meatballs. Place on a baking pan (place a lightly greased small wire cooling rack on top of the baking pan and bake the meatballs on it to allow the grease to drain away and the underside of the meatballs to brown) and bake for 15-25 minutes until brown.

In a bowl, crumble feta cheese with a fork. Blend in chopped olives and kermaviili/yogurt. Flavour mixture with lemon zest, lemon juice, mint and black pepper.