Sometimes I find myself in the mood for some good old-fashioned, unhealthy comfort food, Brady Bunch style. I didn’t have enough vegetables to make Alice’s famous meatloaf, so I decided to make some big meatballs, flatten them into patties, and fry them. And since I abhor the solid ketchup “crust” that people put on meatloaf, I decided to make a pan sauce instead.
Here’s everything you need:
Fried Meatballs
- 1/2 pound pork sausage
- 1/2 pound ground veal
- 1/3 cup freshly chopped breadcrumbs
- 1 shallot, minced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons fresh sage, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
- 1+ tablespoon olive oil
- salt & pepper to taste
Mushroom-Burgundy Sauce
- 1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
- 1 cup chicken or beef stock
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 4 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1 teaspoon flour
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- salt & pepper to taste
These meatballs are Austrian-style, similar to Fleischlaibchen. As far as the preparing the meatballs, there’s not much to explain. Just mix everything together in a bowl. I made my own breadcrumbs from old cubes of homemade bread that I keep in the freezer.
Separate the meatball mixture into four equal-sized balls and then press them into patties. Preheat the oven to 400°. Meanwhile, warm the olive oil over medium heat a large, oven-proof skillet. Add the meatball patties and cook for about 5 minutes. You want the bottoms of the meatballs to get a nice sear, but not burn.
Flip the meatballs and pour off the excess fat. Put the pan in the center of the oven and bake until the patties are cooked through, about 20-25 minutes. You might want to pour off the excess fat again halfway through. You could use a broiler pan for this step if you’re really trying to cook lean. But if that’s your goal, you shouldn’t be cooking this dish to begin with. This is just a bunch of meat and butter with added flavorings.
When the meatballs are finished cooking, they should have a crispy crust and the internal temperature should be about 155°. If you press down on them with your finger, they should give like a rare steak. Remove the patties and let them rest under foil on a warm plate. They’ll finish cooking in the gravy.
Pour off most of the excess fat (reserve a tablespoon or two), but don’t scrape or rinse the pan. Put the pan on the stovetop over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and toss them to coat in the remaining oil. Once they suck up all the moisture like a sponge, add half of the butter to the pan to keep them from burning. Sauté them until they’re seared around the edges. At that point, add a pinch each of salt and pepper so the mushrooms will release their moisture. Cook them for another couple of minutes until the liquid evaporates and then add the wine. We’re pretty poor, so we don’t usually have burgundy laying around the house. Pinot Noir work just as well. Use a wooden spoon to scrape the pan clean. While the wine is reducing, measure out the stock and add the flour to the cup and mix very well. When the wine has reduced by half, add the stock to the pan and stir to blend. Reduce the heat to a medium simmer and let the liquid reduce by half again.
When the liquid has reduced, add the meatballs to the pan and continue to simmer until the sauce coats the back of the spoon. Flip the patties to coat both sides and then plate them. By this time, the sauce should be nice and thick.
Spoon some of the mushroom burgundy sauce over the fried meatballs and dig in. We served this with some sweet and sour red cabbage and breaded spaetzle. It was a very Austrian meal, pretty much by accident. We tried a box of dried spaetzle from the “ethnic” section of the grocery store instead of making it from scratch. It wasn’t as good as the fresh stuff, but it was a whole lot easier.
If you’d like more gravy, then double the sauce recipe (but not the amount of butter) and don’t reduce it as much. That should make enough to allow you to serve this over some rice or mashed potatoes. I just wanted to have enough sauce to flavor the meatballs and the spaetzle. And feel free to double the amount of mushrooms in the sauce. The wife’s not a big fan, so I usually hold back more than I’d prefer.
Tags: Breadcrumbs, Garlic, Meatballs, Mushrooms, Pork, Shallots, Stock, Veal, Wine
