Crazy Tasty Meatballs

It's a meatball! My meatballs received rave reviews. Meatballs need to be treated with care. They're as easy to overcook as a nice steak, so you need to get them just right - and that comes down to correct preparation and cook time. My meatballs here are baked in a rich tomato and paprika sauce with roasted button mushrooms on a bed of kumara and potato mash. I couldn't stop eating them. Here's how it went down.

Ingredients (for 4 decent servings)

For the Meatballs

1kg Mince (20% fat, you can mix pork and beef if you want)

2 Eggs

2 Slices of white bread, pulsed in a blender.

1/2 Cup Whole Milk

2 Teaspoons Dried Oregano

2 Teaspoons Dried Marjoram

2 Teaspoons Powdered Garlic

2 Teaspoons Hungarian Paprika

Cracked Black Pepper

Sea Salt Flakes

Olive Oil

For the Sauce

200g Button Mushrooms (the really small ones)

2 Red Onions, peeled and finely sliced

5 Cloves of Garlic, peeled and minced

800g Chopped Tomatoes (a nice rich variety)

1 Cup of Beef Stock

3 Tablespoons of Malt Vinegar

2 Teaspoons Smoked Paprika

Two heaped teaspoons of Tomato Paste

1 Teaspoon Dried Basil

1 Sprig of Rosemary

Served with

Lime Rind, finely sliced

Sauerkraut

600g Kumara, peeled and diced

600g Waxy Potatoes, peeled and diced

Whole Milk

Olive oil

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Method

Preheat the oven to 200 C.

In a large mixing bowl, put in the mince with the eggs, oregano, marjoram, powdered garlic, paprika and generous amount of salt and pepper. (a teaspoon and a half of each.) Over top, pour about good lug of olive oil.

In a separate, smaller bowl, mix the bread with the milk and let it soak for five minutes. Once done, put the milky bread mixture into the mince. Then, get stuck it with your hands. Work the meat around until the flavours are well distributed.

Form them into meatballs about the size of golf balls and set aside to rest.

Take out a high sided metal roasting pan, coat in oil. Put the roasting pan over a low heat, then add the onions, garlic and sprig of rosemary. Saute in the roasting pan until the onions and garlic are soft, then add the malt vinegar. Reduce the malt vinegar down until sticky.

Add the tomatoes, beef stock, paprika, tomato paste and dried basil. Reduce the mixture by a third, then add the mushrooms. Keep cooking for another five minutes, then salt and pepper to taste.

Nestle the meatballs into the thick sauce. Roll them around in it gently, so you don't break them. Put them in the oven for 20 minutes.

In the last five minutes of cooking, increased the temperate to 220 C to give them a beautiful browning.

While the meatballs are cooking, in two separate pots, boil your kumara and waxy potatoes until really tender. Once cooked, drain and roughly mash, then whip in a half a cup of milk and 4 tablespoons of olive oil with a fork. Salt and pepper well to taste.

Serve the meatballs on a pile of mash with sauce. Put some sauerkraut on the side because hell yes, and some finely sliced lime rind the cut through it all on the occasional bite.

Enjoy!