Crafts and Life

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
300 g lean beef mince
300 g lean pork mince
1 tablespoon anchovy paste
100 g breadcrumbs
15 mL milk
half teaspoon allspice
quarter of teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon flaked sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
a few sprigs of dill, to serve

Gravy

100 mL white wine
500 mL well flavoured beef stock
2 tablespoons single cream
1 tablespoon lingonberry jam, melted and sieved if you want to get rid of fruit (or redcurrant or cranberry jelly)
up to 1 tablespoon arrowroot
flaked sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200° C/Fan 180° C/Gas 6. To make meatballs, heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion until it's soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the onion and garlic to cool.

Put all the meatball ingredients, including the onion and garlic, into a large bowl and mix thoroughly with your hands. Shape the mixture into balls between the size of a walnut and a golf ball – they should be about 40 g in weight. Put the balls on a baking tray and bake for 12 to 15 minutes until cooked through.

To make the gravy, put the wine in a saucepan and boil fiercely until it is reduced by about half – this is to cook most of the alcohol taste out of it. Add the stock and simmer for five minutes, then stir in the single cream and the jam. Season with salt and pepper. Mix the arrowroot with a little water and add a teaspoon of the mixture at a time to the gravy, stirring thoroughly and simmering briefly between each addition until it started to thicken.

Put the meatballs in the gravy and simmer for another five minutes to allow all the flavours to combine – this is important for the taste of the gravy so don't be tempted to skip this stage. Serve with a sprinkling of dill.

Freeze!
The cooked meatballs freeze well. Open freeze them on a tray, then pop them into freezer bags or a plastic box once they are solid. The gravy is best made fresh. Gently reheat the defrosted meatballs in the gravy before serving.

Serves 4 to 6 (makes about 24 meatballs) – taken from The Hairy Dieters (Book 3) Good Eating by Si King and Dave Myers

N.b. we used Quorn meatballs (two packets) but made the gravy as stated (with veg stock not beef stock)