Nina DeeDee's Albondigas Recipe...
And 14 days until my cookbook release. Please consider pre-ordering.
This is a post for all subscribers.
If you want to stay up to date on all the things happening; consider subscribing to the newsletter.
illyanna Maisonet's Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Or, just keep visiting my new and fancy website: www.illyannamaisonet.com
If you’re a paid subscriber, please leave your Instagram handle in the comments so that I can add you to my “close friends” section of Instagram. I’m taking a break from posting content on my feed, but will post random Shit on my stories and even that I want to be able to control who sees it.
Buy Mami a burger, send her a Starbucks gift card (grande hot mocha with whip) or nail polish at the Dollar Tree:
Mami Maisonet
5960 S Land Park #222
Sacramento, CA 95822
MAISONET X MILK STREET
Thursday, October 27
6:00 PM – 7:15 PM EDT
Both my MS radio interview and this class won’t go live until closer to the publishing date of my book (October 18), but you can sign up for the class today! You say you can’t attend this class because it’s your brother’s BM’s first husband’s birthday? I got you.
MAISONET X 92Y
Friday, November 4th
10:00 - 11:00 AM PDT
Then sign up for this class! The 92Y has been kind enough to ask me to collaborate with them on several ways for my followers (and unfollowers) to engage. Stay tuned for more and I hope to see you at one of them.
illyanna in the news:
8 Must-Read Food Books Coming This Fall: Diasporican gets reviewed, The Takeout
On Being ‘Diasporican’: A New Puerto Rican Cookbook Experiments Without Apology, KQED
The Magic Two-Minute Ingredient That’s Always in My Freezer: The Kitchn
Chef Illyanna Maisonet’s ‘Diasporican’ Cookbook Takes on Flavors of Puerto Rico and California: FORUM KQED PODCAST
“Publishers are risk-averse and will default to crowd-pleasing titles and safe authors, and I think we’re all aware of what that is “code” for.”
Please check out Jenny Dorsey’s most recent piece in her own newsletter, “Way too Complicated.” In her most recent piece she talks about the realities of writing a cookbook for hire; this is when publishers already have a topic, now they need an author to write the cookbook. She talks about how to land one of these gigs, the importance of purchasing books at full price and from small retailers, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF PRE-ORDERS!
I also wrote about the importance of pre-orders in a March newsletter, “Why is it important to pre-order?”
“I wanted to talk about how important pre-orders are because…well…NO ONE TELLS YOU (or us!) this! “For an author, pre-orders can alert retailers and consumers that they should pay attention to your book. From the bookseller perspective, the pre-order quantity is a good early indicator of a book's success, and can lead to retailers increasing their initial orders.” There’s been a lot of questions asking me if my book is for sale in such and such bookstores and the truth is, I have no idea! But, pre-ordering and calling your local bookstores is a good way to make it happen! The sellers see it as desirable and deem you worthy enough to carry. It also helps the publisher decide if they’re going a second round with you in a second edition. If you’re thinking “I’ll just wait until it gets closer to the actual release date which is far away,” please reconsider pre-ordering now. If you have the means!”
Did you know that in order to get on the New York Times bestseller list, you only need to sell 5-10K copies? And I’m currently at 1,300 pre-orders. Remember when I told you how important pre-ordering is? It’s extremely important.
PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY NOW!
Nina DeeDee’s Albondigas Recipe
1 pound Ground Beef
1/2 cup Breadcrumbs
2 Tablespoons of salt free Sazon
2 Tablespoons salt free Adobo
2 Tablespoons of your favorite salt free herb blend, like Mrs Dash
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large Onion, roughly diced
5 Garlic cloves, minced
3 Carrots
3 Celery Stalks
1 large Papa, cut into quarters (variety does not matter for this recipe)
1-2 Zucchini, cut into large chunks
Egg Noodles, at your discretion
In a large bowl, combine your ground beef with the breadcrumbs, sazon, adobo, your favorite herb blend, salt, pepper and breadcrumbs. Mix thoroughly and combine well until all of the spices and breadcrumbs have been incorporated evenly into the meat mixture. Pinch off mounds of the ground beef (the size of meatballs is at your discretion. Nina DeeDee makes really small meatballs, I make them a little bigger than her), place the mound of beef in the palm of your hand and roll the mound into a meatball with the palm of your other hand. One hand should be static (staying still) and the other hand should be doing all the work. That’s what she said. Set the meatballs aside.
Your celery and carrots: Cut two stalks of celery and two carrots into a fine dice. This is going to be a part of your mirepoix (fancy french term for flavor base). Cut the other celery stalk and carrot into large chunks, this will be the chunks visibly floating in your finished dish.
Medium-high heat. In a large stainless, aluminum or enamel dutch oven pot, saute your onions, small diced celery and small diced carrots in olive oil. Saute until translucent, 2-3 minutes. Add in your garlic and cook for another minute.
Add in about 6 cups of water and let the mirepoix and water cook together for 30 minutes.
Taste your broth for seasonings. Add another 6 cups of water, some of the liquid will have reduced by now. Check for seasonings. This is also the time when you would add in something like a bouillon cube or Better than Bouillon. I did add a tiny piece of a chicken bouillon for this recipe, which is what Nina does…sometimes.
Honestly, you can add as much water as you want as long as your broth still tastes flavorful. Just adjust your seasonings along with the amount of water you add.
Turn your heat down to medium. Add in your big chunks of carrot, celery and the papa. The papa is really only here to give it the viscosity that I prefer. You don’t want it, don’t use it. Cook for 10-12 minutes, or until the carrots are fork tender.
Throw in your meatballs and simmer on medium low to low for 5 minutes. You don’t want to cook the meatballs on a high temp because they’ll just break apart. Your balls prefer a gentle simmer in the hot tub. By the way, what the hell’s the difference between a hot tub and a Jacuzzi?
After 5 minutes, toss in how ever many egg noodles you desire. And now add your zucchini. Cook for another 5-10 minutes or until your meatballs are cooked through and your noodles are tender and the zucchini is still firm, but softened. This last steps kind of a bitch to nail, but don’t worry. If you want to check to see if the meatballs are cooked through, just cut into one.
Also, if you add a lot of egg noodles, ADD MORE WATER AND SEASONINGS! Or, not. It’s your world.
Serve.
And if you get lost, there’s always the visual component to go along with this recipe. In Reels! And engage with the Reel. Be friends with the Reel. The Reel has been sending me monthly checks.
Love this! Preordered through Target back in March after the first call to action. Super excited is an understatement for how I’m feeling about the cookbook countdown! Bexcookingdiva on IG. Your content is great!
Jacuzzi is a name brand, like how "Crock-Pot" often gets used for all slow-cookers.
This looks awesome, and I'm really excited to get my copy of your book. I think the bookshop expects it a few weeks after the US release.