Black Pudding & Pork Meatball Hotpot in Paprika Tomato Sauce
Hotpot and meatballs, not something I would usually say in the same sentence, but in this case, it really works.
It’s a combination of things I love.
An amazing sauce with texture and oomph. Light moist meatballs with bite size bits of black pudding and pork, and that topping of thinly sliced potatoes that inevitably sucks up lots of flavour from the sauce.
I made it, I tried it and I loved it.
I hope you will too!
I don’t have the pleasure of eating a lot of black pudding, and for all of you south of the gap, that may surprise you.
So, when I do, I like to find a good one.
This doesn’t mean that I spend a fortune, no, my local Lidle sells delicious slices of spiced black pudding, worthy of not just a breakfast dish.
I guess what I’m saying is, using a good black pudding will make a difference in the taste of the end dish.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life.
Black Pudding & Pork Meatball Hotpot in Paprika Tomato Sauce
What You Need
Meatballs
500g Pork Mince
400g X 2 Cans Chopped Tomatoes
250g Black Pudding – Broken up but kept chunky
15g fresh Parsley – Finely Chopped – Extra to serve
15g Fresh Thyme – Leaves removed and finely chopped.
3 Large Spring Onions – Finely Chopped
3 Large Garlic Cloves – Minced
3 Anchovies – finely chopped
2 tbsp Oats – See Tip Box
1 Large Egg
Malden Salt – To Taste – See Tip Box
Fresh Black Pepper – To Taste - See Tip Box
All the meatball ingredients into one bowl.
Sauce
1 Large Onion – Skin and root removed and finely chopped
2 Stalks of Celery – Cleaned and finely chopped
15g Fresh Thyme – Leaves removed and finely chopped.
15g Fresh Parsley – Finely chopped
2 Large Garlic Cloves – Minced
1 tbsp Hot Paprika Paste – or substitute with 2 tsp hot paprika and 2 tbsp tomato puree – See Tip Box
4 tbsp Beef Dripping or vegetable oil
3 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
3 Anchovies – Finely Chopped
3 Large Spring Onions
400ml Water
Malden Sea Salt – To Taste
Fresh Black Pepper – To Taste
Spend time softening the vegetables for the sauce.
Topping
2-3 Large Potatoes – Skin on and scrubbed clean
Beef Dripping - Melted – Or butter – See Tip Box
Slice the potatoes as thin as possible
How It’s Done
Place all the ingredients for the meatballs into a large bowl and use hands to mix everything together.
Don’t scrunch the mixture too much, if you do, the meatballs will be dense and maybe even a little dry, so only mix with your hands until just combined. – See Tip Box
Roll the mixture into walnut size balls, again making sure not to squash the mixture together too much. Keeping the chunks of black pudding.
Place the balls onto a plate and put the plate in the fridge to firm up while you tackle the sauce.
Place the meatballs in the fridge while the sauce is made.
Sauce
In a shallow heavy bottomed and oven proof pan, that has a lid, add the beef dripping along with the chopped onion, celery and a pinch of salt.
Give it a good mix up.
On a low to medium heat, let them cook slowly until they become very soft and a few bits start to go brown around the edges. Don’t rush this bit, a lot of flavour comes from just these two ingredients.
It may take around 15 minutes. Make sure the mixture gets a few good stirs while cooking, making sure that it doesn’t burn.
Once soft, add the chopped anchovies, the minced garlic, give it a mix to combine, and let it cook slowly for another 3 minutes.
Still on a low to medium heat, add 400ml water, the two tins of chopped tomatoes, paprika paste Worchester sauce and chopped herbs.
Add a good pinch of Malden sea salt and a good grind of black pepper
Give it a really good mix up and still on a low to medium heat, let it simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Give it a taste and adjust the seasoning – depending on how your taste buds are, this may mean that you add more sea salt and pepper.
Let the sauce simmer on a low heat for another 15 minutes, making sure to give it a regular stir – See Tip Box
Gently submerge the meatballs in the sauce
Putting it Together
Heat the oven to 180c
Put an oven tray in the oven to heat up.
Turn the heat off the sauce and remove the meatballs from the oven.
Place the meatballs into the sauce and very gently submerge them. Under the liquid.
Slice the clean potatoes extremely thinly (I use a mandolin but a good sharp knife will do just as well).
Starting with the outside edge of the mixture, place the potatoes in a circle.
Add the potatoes in circles overlapping slightly
Place circle of potatoes just below the first making sure the overlap a little
Continue this until the whole top of the mixture is covered in the potatoes.
Brush the top pf the potatoes with melted beef f=dripping or butter and then sprinkle over some salt and pepper.
Brush the potatoes with melted butter or beef dripping
Place the lid on the dish and put it into the oven, sitting on the tray so it doesn’t make a mess, and let it cook for 40 minutes.
After this time, remove the lid and put it back into the oven for 10 -15 minutes , until the potatoes start to go a golden brown and the meatballs are piping hot – See Tip Box
Once cooked, remove from the oven and let is sit for 10 minutes before serving with a sprinkle of chopped parsley over the top.
Serve hot or at room temperature.
Store in the fridge for a few days.
Moist meatballs in a paprika sauce
Tip Box
Beef Dripping Vs Butter – Both of these add richness and fat to a dish, and brushing melted on top of the potatoes gives them a rich flavour. Over the christmas period, there was a lot of dripping and goose fat on sale and i scooped it up.
Oats vs Breadcrumbs – The addition of oats keeps the meatballs lighter thay if adding breadcrumbs. Although breadcrumbs are probably more available (in freezers or pantries) if you have oats give these a try.
Malden Sea Salt Vs Table Salt – I have strong opinions about table salt and heavily believe that it should only be used in pasta and potato water.
Table salt is oxidised which means its flavour is heavily salt flavoured, in turn means that the addition of table salt doesn’t add anything positive to the flavour, just the overriding taste of the sea.
Other salts all taste different, and Malden Sea Salt is my particular go to. They are flavours, as are herbs and spices, as opposed to adding sea water to my food.
Give them a try.
To Taste – When cooking, it’s always best to learn to trust your taste buds and a great place to start is by the addition of salt and pepper to a dish. We’re all different, and this also applies to how salty etc, we like our food. The best way to judge, is to taste the dish throughout the cooking. But remember, it’s easy to add salt and pepper, but near impossible to remove it.
Hot Paprika Paste – a) Great if you can get it, I get mine from my local Lidle, so it’s not too difficult to find. Once i discovered it, it soon became one of my go to ingredients to add to soups, stews and even in scrambles eggs.
b) If you can’t find it, that’s not a huge problem. Just substitute a mix of paprika (in this case hot paprika) and tomato puree.
Over working the meatball ingredients. – being too harsh when handling the meatball mixture is a no no. Over working the combination of the pork and black pudding, by that I mean by condensing them too much, will mean that the meatballs may turn out like meaty billets. Not just horrible to eat, but way too dense for the sauce to penetrate and leave behind some of its flavour.
Why let the sauce simmer for so long? – Flavour comes from cooking, so, letting the sauce gently simmer for almost 30 minutes, let’s all the flavours merge and mingle, like a mixer on the first day of a work seminar.
Once the meatballs are added, and begin to cook in the sauce, they will impart their own flavour into the sauce, the more flavours the better.
Cooking – All ovens are different so adjust cooking time according.
