Hello, everyone!

This is a post which has been sitting in Drafts for ages.  I just hope I can remember how we made the dish.

I am sorry it has been so long since I have written a post.  One reason has been lethargy and the other is that I have had computer problems or, more to the point, software problems.  I will tell you about them in case you have the same, or similar, issues.  It will save you hours in forums.

According to what I have read, they have been caused by the latest updates of Windows 10 and Google Chrome (I don’t even know how I got Google Chrome but there you go).

Don’t get me started on Windows 10 – Grrrrrhh!  As a consequence of its installation, I have had to buy a new printer when the old one was perfectly functional.  The problem was the old driver was not compatible with Windows 10 and Epson was not going to update it because of its age.  OK, it was really old but it worked perfectly.

Next, I had to upgrade Photoshop Elements because one update of Windows 10 killed all the fonts.  It didn’t recognise the fonts, or something like that, and since it was an old version (Adobe update it every year and only service the current version), I had to upgrade – Grrrrrhh!  Interestingly, the old version is still working perfectly on my Perth computer.

The other day, I tried to resize a photo in WordPress – but couldn’t.  A few hours on the forums later, I discovered it was a problem with the new version of Chrome affecting WordPress.  If I opened WordPress in Internet Explorer, all was well.

Later that night, I went into Photoshop Elements to edit some photos of my new soaps and I couldn’t save anything.  I was getting a message stating I didn’t have enough memory which didn’t seem right.  After quite a few more hours in the forums, I discovered that, as a result of the latest Windows 10 update, the amount of RAM available was not being detected correctly by Photoshop.  A work around until Microsoft or Adobe fix it is to edit the registry.  This solution came with the following warning:

if you play around with the registry and get it wrong, you could severely or even fatally screw up your PC.  If you don’t know what you are doing, or are not confident, then don’t mess with the registry.

Well, I had no idea what I was doing but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Alas, the guys in the forum were much more tech savvy than me.  They didn’t give detailed instructions on how I was to do this.  All I knew was I had to add a new DWord in regedit.

I Googled how to add a new DWord.  I tried three times and it didn’t work.  At last, at about 1:00am, I found a screen dump of what I was supposed to do, with step by step instructions and I nailed it.  I woke poor Maus in the excitement.  

So if  you have some Adobe programs and have recently started having memory problems, I know how to fix them.  Just send me an email and I will run you through it.  It doesn’t seem to matter what version of Photoshop you have.

Those who know me, know all this has made me very grumpy.   And what did I do to cheer myself up?   I made some more soap.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand… a recipe.  When I was originally preparing this post, I was going to call it Where has Ottolenghi gone?  I couple of years back, Yotam was all over the place.  Now you rarely hear of him.   It is a good thing really.  I have barely scratched the surface of my Ottolenghi books.  If he is having a breather, I might be able to catch up.

This dinner came about as with most dinners:  we had lamb mince in the freezer and I wanted to use it.  Off to Eat Your Books I went and found this recipe.  Maus made the meatballs and I made the sauce.  The photo is a bit blue because I took it under artificial light.  Oh, well, in the scheme of things, that was the least of my worries.

This recipe is from NOPI The Cookbook.

These quantities will serve 6.

Ingredients:

Meatballs:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a medium saucepan with the onion and the  garlic.
2. Very gently fry for 8 to 10 minutes, until the onions have softened but not taken on any colour. Add a bit of water if they begin to brown.
3. Add the chilli and chard and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the chard has wilted.
4. Stir in the allspice, chicken stock and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil, then remove from the heat.
5. Place the yoghurt, cornflour paste and egg in a large mixing bowl with 150 mils of water. Whisk to form a smooth paste.  Gradually spoon the hot chard mixture into the yoghurt, stirring well after each addition, until the two mixtures are combined.  Add salt and black pepper, stir and set aside.

Meatballs:

1. Place all the meatball ingredients into a large bowl.  Mix together, then shape into 24 balls, about 50g each.
2. Pour the remaining oil into a large, high-sided saute pan and place over medium-high heat.  Add half the meatballs and fry for 4 minutes, turning a few times so that all sides are browned.  Remove from the pan and repeat with the remaining batch, adding a little bit more oil if needed.

Combine:

1. Wipe out the pan and pour in the yoghurt sauce.  Bring to a very gentle simmer over medium-low heat (it should barely be bubbling), stirring continuously in one direction to prevent the yoghurt from curdling.  (I did this. I am not sure whether it is true but I wasn’t willing to risk it.)
2. Return the meatballs to the pan (they should just be covered with sauce) and cook over low heat, covered for 20 to 25 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through.
3. Serve with the pomegranate seeds and coriander sprinkled on top.