Pork Meatballs and Other Nice Things

Mr. Fixit has been buying some of our meat at a Polish butcher's/deli store instead of our usual Croatian butcher's--it's a much shorter trip. However, one downside of the deli is that some of the staff don't speak much English. Last week he requested ground beef and brought home ground pork instead, something I've rarely cooked with.

But that's okay. I found a recipe in The Harrowsmith Cookbook for Pork Balls in Wine Sauce, and made the pork balls sans wine sauce. I added a couple of my own adjustments as well, and they turned out really well. Here's my version:

Pork Meatballs

1 lb. ground pork
2 cups fresh bread crumbs (I ran four pieces of pumpernickel bread through the food processor)
1 large egg
1 tsp. salt and a grind of pepper
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
Chopped parsley: I would have added some if I'd had any

Combine the meat with the rest of the ingredients. Form into about twenty small balls, and place on foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or slightly longer at 375 degrees; cut one or two open to check doneness if you're not sure. Let them cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before removing from the foil--they seem to lift off better after they've cooled slightly. Serve with any kind of sauce you like, wine or otherwise.

This is what I did with them: I made the balls ahead of time and left them in the fridge to cool. About half an hour before dinner, I put them into a baking dish and drizzled barbecue sauce over them, then heated them at 350 degrees. You could reheat them in the microwave too. We served them with extra barbecue sauce, baked sweet potatoes (no trick to those, you just cut them in half if they're really big, and then bake them on a pan till they're soft), fresh broccoli, and the pumpernickel bread. The sweet potatoes and broccoli came from the farmstand, so when I say they were fresh I mean bright orange and green, with the right fall flavours.

For dessert we had Gala apples and Raisin Coffeecake Muffins. I hardly ever put nuts in muffins (Mr. Fixit can't eat them), but since they were already going to be full of raisins (another no), I figured it didn't matter; Mr. Fixit was happy with just an apple anyway.

I didn't have any of the Nutriblend flour called for, so I just used whole wheat; unbleached would probably turn out fine too.

Fall meals with fresh food--who needs anything fancier?