As you probably know the president has ordered a lock down for 21 days to try and help to stop the spread of COVID-19.

I had limited time before we would have to stay inside completely so I decided for my final free day I wanted to make something delicious from my favourite cookbook. As you know I love to cook from Meals by Christine Capendale. 

I decided to make Greek meatballs on toasted pitas. I was scrolling through the book and landed on this one and thought it looked and sounded delicious. I started the cooking process at 4 o’clock sharp. I started making the meatballs by mixing together some breadcrumbs and ended by putting the finished meatballs in the fridge to be cooked later.

There was some chopping of onions, measuring of spices and rolling out of 20 meatballs in between.

Then I then started making my home made tzatziki. I cut a cucumber in half and scraped out the seeds. I grated the remaining cucumber put it with salt so it would let out water.

I was shocked by the amount of liquid there was by the time it was finished draining. It looked  a full cup’s worth of liquid. Then I mixed the cucumber with yoghurt, garlic and lemon juice and olive oil. Eventually I finished the tzatziki.

I made a salad with tomato and olives and feta cheese. I then cooked the meatballs. The book said to fry them but my mum suggested that I grill them in the oven so that is what I did. I toasted the pitas.

I thought it was delicious. It really worked well. My dad eats very slowly because he talks and talks about crap – not really crap – mainly corona virus. It was very hard to stay sane because while he was talking and talking he was not eating so when I was finished he still had lots of delicious meatballs left on his plate.

It was oh so tempting but he got really cross when I tried to steal them. I would recommend this recipe to people staying safe in isolation.  

Meatballs

50ml dried breadcrumbs

500g lean beef mince

100ml finely chopped onion

50ml chopped fresh parsley

1 egg

5ml salt

Black pepper to taste

15ml BBQ spice

30ml Worcester sauce

Mix all together and then roll into 20 small meatballs. Grill or fry. Eat. Steal father’s portion.

Tzatziki

1 cucumber, seeded (seeds thrown away) and grated

10ml salt

1 clove garlic

30ml olive oil

10ml lemon juice

500ml thick Greek yoghurt

15ml chopped fresh mint

Black pepper to taste

Put salt and grated cucumber into a sieve and drain out water for about one hour.

Mix all other ingredients together. When the cucumber is drained add in and stir. Serve with meatballs. Steal father’s portion.