The first real storm of Autumn hit our coast today with gusts of wind that finished off the leaves that were still clinging stubbornly to the trees.  I walked over a carpet of hundreds of them on my way to work, all yellow and soaked with the rain.  Aside from the wind, the city was pretty quiet as it was a stat holiday for many, carried over from Remembrance Day on Saturday and many businesses were closed.

Over the weekend I had made an Irish Stew and it was enough to last us through Sunday which means I didn’t have to cook.   I took the time instead to pre-make the meatballs for this recipe. I am a planner and my meals are usually clearly visualized days before I make them, grocery shopping is an opportunity to create dishes with new ingredients I see while I stroll along the isles.  You can buy meatballs at the grocery store but making them myself gives me the opportunity to flavour them the way I want.

You can make this recipe with pork, turkey and even beef if you prefer. I stuck to the original recipes I’ve seen and used ground pork to which I added 1/2 a chopped onion, minced fresh garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, a pinch of paprika, garlic powder, 4 Tblsp of bread crumbs and 1 egg.

After I made the meatballs, I packed them in trays and put them in the fridge overnight making my cooking today so much quicker.

We’re going to make a delicious gravy with this recipe so the only obvious side would be garlic mashed potatoes of course.  The flavours came out (with a little improvising) really good and made a cozy meal on this dark rainy evening.

You Will Need: 

Pork meatballs (purchased at the grocery store or home made like I did)

2 Tbsp of butter (you might need to add a little more as you cook so it doesn’t burn. This will be the beginning of your gravy)

1 Tbsp of flour

300mls Chicken Stock

1 Tbsp of regular yellow mustard (not powdered. Just mustard you’d put on a hotdog)

2 Tbsp Soya Sauce

1 tsp honey

300mls Creme Fraiche

Salt and Pepper

Big pinch of fresh chopped parsley

Directions 

Heat a large  pan over a medium heat. Add the butter, you want enough so that when it melts it covers the bottom of the pan. Add the meatballs to the pan and sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper.  Fry the meatballs and shake the pan around so they brown on all sides. Make sure they are browned, not beige, properly browned and almost crispy on the outside. When you think they’re properly browned, transfer meatballs to a dish.

You should have a little fat and butter left in the pan. Whisk the flour into the chicken stock then stir it into the pan and turn the heat up a little and bring it to the boil while stirring and scraping all the flour from the bottom of the pan so that it starts to thicken.

While the gravy is bubbling,  add the mustard, honey and Soya sauce and mix to combine. Turn the heat down to medium again and pour the creme fraiche into the sauce. Stir it all together then add the meatballs to the gravy.

Let it all bubble away for a few minutes. I cut a meatball in half at this point to see if was cooked and looked good. Taste the sauce and see if it needs anything. The balance of flavours here is totally up to you.

When you think it’s perfect, sprinkle your parsley over the top and serve with garlic mashed potatoes!

 

Love,

Jennifer