Spicy Chicken Meatballs with Whipped Truffle Flavored Mascarpone

 In New York I tried these amazing Chicken Meatballs with truffle Mascarpone. I obviously don't have a recipe for them, but I decided to try and replicate the taste. These work best as Tapas, but technically you could serve them as a starter or a snack. The important thing is to flavor the minced chicken meat enough, it doesn't have that strong of a flavor itself.

Meatballs

400grams minced chicken meat

1/2 chopped red chili

2tbs grated ginger

2tsp ginger powder

chopped cilantro

1 egg

3 tbs breadcrumbs (gluten free if you need it)

salt & pepper

Mushrooms to garnish

Mascarpone whipp

150gr Mascarpone

1tbs quark (maitorahka)

salt

3tsp white (or black) truffle oil

 When you use ginger in a recipe like this, it might be better to grate it than finely chop it. A problem is that grating ginger on the finest possible blade, usually makes it stick to the grater.

A trick I learned (and this works for grating lemon/lime zest as well) is to put a piece of baking paper over the grater and press it down. Then you grate with the baking paper as cover.

What happens is that the baking paper actually captures all the finely grated ginger (or zest) so when you remove the paper, it's all there intact. Nothing stuck on the grater.

When the ginger is grated, remove all the seeds from 1/2 red chili and finely chop it. Chop up cilantro as well.

Add ginger, chili, cilantro, one egg, and the breadcrumbs to the minced chicken meat. Star working on mixing it all together.

Form some meatballs and put them in the oven for about 10min in 220C. Make sure the meatballs are cooked through, eating raw chicken is a serious health hazard.

While the meatballs cook it's time to make the mascarpone whipp. Combine mascarpone, quark a little bit of salt and the gradually the truffle oil. Mix it together. Taste it, if you feel like adding some truffel oil, do it. Be careful though, truffle has an overpowering taste.

 

Take the meatballs out of the oven,  chop up 4-5mushrooms and sear them in a pan with oil. Add some truffel oil when they are don, and mix it in. This will give the illusion of eating actual truffles. Pour the chopped mushrooms over the meatballs in a serving dish.

Add the mascarpone whipp, and garnish with some cilantro. Voilà! To make the whipp look prettier, I add it by using a ziplock/baking plastic bag that i cut a larger hole in. That way when you squeeze it, it looks prettier and fluffier than if you put it there with a spoon.

Beauty & Essex

Goodbye meatpacking district, hello lower east side. To some extent still bad areas, cheap real estate and chinese signs but now also filled with amazing restaurants and a vibrant bar life. This is also the location of Beauty & Essex The owner is the same as Stanton Social, and like Stanton Social Beauty & Essex is trendy, classy, elegant and combines wonderful food with well made coctails.

Two stunning observations off hand. The entrance does not look like a restaurant, because it isn't.
Beauty & Essex is a pawn shop. Wonderful if you feel like shopping and eating at the same time. Behind the pawn shop doors, the actual restaurant opens up.

The food is tapas style, and with a big group of people it was an excellent opportunity to try almost the entier menu out. Everything from fried oysters, to dumplings. My two especial favorites, which will forever stay in my mind were  the Oven Braised Chicken Meatballs, topped with

sheeps milk ricotta, wild mushrooms, and truffle oil. This is a recipe I will try to recreate some time.

The other absolute favorite was the roasted bone marrow with a rioja based shallot marmalade, and parsley. The idea is to spread the bone marrow on to the crostini and enjoy. Incredible.

Prices are acceptable, here is the benefit of paying for what you order. More tapas more dollars, the budget is up to you. For a NYC restaurant, it isn't that expensive.

To finish the night off, us girls went to the ladies room, to powder our noses and get ready for some clubbing. To our wonderful surprise, pink champagen was served there. Yes, in the ladies room. No better way to start off the night.