OFC - Dominican Republic - Albondigas de pescado

It turns out the biggest challenge in this Olympic food malarkey is tearing myself away from the sport to write the post.  I'm a day behind (or perhaps a few...will take some steroids and catch up with the crowd shortly) so today has been a rollercoaster of gymnastics, diving and swimming.  British men getting the first medal in the team event for 100 years, 15 year old Ruta Meilutyte winning the 100m breastroke, all pretty exciting!  Summer is turning out to be fun and for once I'm not crying on the inside from my lack of holiday this year.


However (and here is the worst link you'll ever hear), if I was in the mood for a holiday I wouldn't mind going to the Dominican Republic!  Haha.  I'll hang my head in shame now.  The Dominican Republic is the second largest Caribbean island, first landing point of Columbus, and so the first European settlement in America (you learn something new every day).  The food is therefore a bit of a mishmash of Spanish and African and is quite similar to other Latin American cuisine.  Think empanadas, chimichurris, arroz con leche.


Our choice was albondigas con pescado, or to give it its glamorous name, fish balls.  The recipe was nice, but could have done with a bit more punch and we ended up mixing in some chilli sauce.  Luckily, Joe only announced today that he was going to mark my food out of ten, so this one escapes a mediocre score.

Albondigas con pescado (for 2)

For the fish balls
250g white fish (we used haddock), roughly chopped
75g breadcrumbs
1/2 small white onion, chopped
1/2 clove of garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 bell pepper, roughly chopped
salt and pepper


For the sauce
1/2 bell pepper, sliced
1/2 white onion, sliced
1 large tomato, chopped
1/2 garlic clove, finely chopped
large squeeze tomato puree
bunch coriander
salt and pepper
water
juice of one lime


1.  Place all the fish ball ingredients in a food processor and blitz until it starts to come together
2.  shape the fix mix into table tennis sized balls and set aside
3.  gently fry the onion for 5 minutes until soft
4.  add the bell pepper, tomato and garlic, and tomato puree and fry for a few more minutes until the puree has been cooked out
5.  add a cup of water and bring to a simmer, season to taste
6.  place the fish balls into the sauce gently and cover.  Simmer for 5 minutes and then turn over and simmer for a further five minutes
7.  finish with the chopped coriander and lime, and serve with rice.