Pork Meat Balls with Dijon Cream Sauce with Wini Moranville

This recipe is from a fellow Iowan Blogger Wini Moranville.  After checking out her e-cookbook,

which is full of 22 wonderful recipes, I chose this pork meat ball recipe to share with you.  The recipe is simple and the dish looks divine.   See link at end to see how you can order your own e-cookbook for only $2.99! (Price as of 10/17/2014)

A bit more about the cookbook from Wini:  It's the result of a collaboration between French-born chef David Baruthio and me. (Chef Baru owns the widely acclaimed Baru 66 restaurant in Des Moines, Iowa). I just love the way this recipe shows that the French know their way around a meatball just as much as Italian-Americans do. 

Of course, we don't think of meatballs as something you'd braise, but in fact, on two different occasions, two different renown chefs (including David) have given me their recipes for meatballs, and both times they've been cooked partially submerged in liquid (not baked dry, as so many recipes call for). This method of cooking meatballs may just change your meatball-loving life!

A word about the recipe: As you shape the meatballs, you're going to think they're super soft and too flimsy to fry. You're going to wonder where the breading is. There is no breading in this recipe; hence, what you get is pure, rich, meaty flavor, along with that fresh green spark of the parsley. The trick is to use lots of oil to keep them from sticking. Use a large tablespoon to gently turn them. And don't worry--you'll drain off most of that fat!

P.S.  A HUGE thanks to Wini for taking the step by step photos for me to share with the recipe!

Pork Meat Balls with Dijon Cream Sauce

1-1/2 pounds ground pork

1 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

1 egg

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup dry white wine

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1-1/2 cups heavy cream

In a bowl, mix the pork, parsley, egg, and garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste

(though go easy on the salt, as the Dijon mustard that you’ll add later can be quite

salty). Shape the mixture into 12 meatballs.

Heat 1/2 cup vegetable oil in a 3-1/2-quart braiser* over medium-high heat until the

oil shimmers. Add the meatballs and cook, turning once, until they are light brown

on both sides, about 6 minutes total (don’t worry about browning all sides of the

meatballs).

Reduce the heat to medium-low; continue to cook the meatballs, turning

occasionally until nicely brown on all sides. Remove the meatballs from the pan.

Drain off all but a sheen of fat from the pan. Increase the temperature to medium

add the onion; cook, stirring, until tender but not brown, about 3 minutes. Add the wine

and cook, stirring to loosen any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook and

stir until the wine is reduced to 1/4 cup, about 3 minutes.

Whisk in the mustard until incorporated. Add the heavy cream and cook, stirring,

until the cream liquids are reduced to about 1 cup. Return the meatballs to the braiser;

reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through (160°F),

about 20 minutes. Serve with baked cabbage with bacon and apples. (Recipe found in e-cookbook.)

Join the conversation on her Facebook page at Chez Bonne Femme. And if you live in Iowa, keep up with great food on the Des Moines dining scene on her local facebook page, All Things Food DSM - Wini Moranville. 

Wini Moranville

Facebook for DSM Food Lovers: All Things Food DSM - Wini Moranville

Facebook for France Lovers: Chez Bonne Femme

Blog: ChezBonneFemme.com

Twitter: @winimoranville

HER BIO

Wini is a food and wine writer whose work has appeared in many food and lifestyle magazines including Relish, Better Homes and Gardens, Country Home, Simply Perfect Italian, Holiday Appetizers, Holiday Celebrations, Holiday Menus, and Creative Home, Indulge Magazine, and DSM magazine. She has also served as a writer and editor for numerous cookbooks under the Better Homes and Gardens imprint, including three editions of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. From 1997 to 2012, she wrote over 750 restaurant reviews for The Des Moines Register. She currently writes occasional pieces about wine, food, and travel for this newspaper.

In 2011, Harvard Common Press published Wini's book, “The Bonne Femme Cookbook: Simple, Splended Food That French Women Cook Every Day,” which has been featured in the Wine Enthusiast, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and numerous other newspapers, magazines, and blogs. The book was named “Best Everyday French Cookbook” on National Public Radio’s shortlist of the best cookbooks of 2011. Since then, she has published two e-books: The Braiser Cookbook and The French Pasta Cookbook. 

*By the way, you can definitely make this recipe without a braising pan: See her post on How to Braise without a Braiser. But if you're intrigued by the braiser, see her post on "What Is a Braiser? Should You Invest?"

(aff link)