Braised Pork Meatballs in Beer Sauce and Cheesy Polenta.

I was going to serve sweet potato with this but I didn't start it in time to be done with the rest of the meal so I made some spinach instead.  I also mixed some of the sauce with the vegetable broth for the polenta.

Braised Pork Meatballs in a Beer Sauce on Cheesy Polenta

Let's set spaghetti aside and rock some braised pork meatballs in a beer sauce on a super cheesy polenta base for a change!

Prep Time 10 minutes  Cook Time 1 hour  Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes  Servings 2

Author Brian Jones

Ingredients

For the Polenta

• 500 ml Vegetable Stock.= 17 oz

• 85 g Polenta.= 3 oz

• 50 g Cheddar Cheese. Go for something sharp and then grate it.= 1.76 oz

For the Meatballs

• 100 g Potato. Peeled and grated.= 3.53 oz

• 300 g Pork Shoulder. Medium Ground. 10.6 oz

• 1 Egg.

• 1/2 Tsp Dried Thyme.

• 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard.

• 1/4 Tsp Salt

• Black Pepper. Generous grind

For the Sauce

• 30 g Butter. 1 oz

• 1/2 Tbsp Plain Flour.

• 75 ml Water = 2.5 oz

• 250 ml Dark Beer. I used a Leffe Brune a dark wheat beer.= 8.5 oz

• 100 ml BBQ Sauce. Use your favourite I used a homemade one from but I'll not bash you for store bought. = 3.4 oz

• Salt and Pepper. To Taste

• 1 Onion. Peeled and cut into 6 wedges.

Instructions

1 Preheat your oven to 180°C.

2 Take the potato, egg, pork shoulder, mustard, thyme, salt and pepper and mix together in a bowl.

3 Wet your hands and form this mix into 6 evenly sized meatballs and set aside, these meatballs are meant to be really rather wet at this stage so don't worry.

4 Heat a frying pan that can be transferred to the oven over a medium high heat and melt the butter for the sauce and when melted add the flour and stir to and cook out for 2-3 minutes.

5 Now pour in your beer, water and BBQ sauce and cook for 3-4 minutes whilst constantly stirring, now check the seasoning and add salt and pepper as required.

6 Add your meatballs and onion wedges and roll around to get nicely coated in the sauce, then transfer to the oven and cook for 45-50 minutes.

7 Now we can start or polenta, heat your vegetable stock in a pan and when boiling pour in your polenta stirring all the time.

8 When your polenta returns to the boil reduce the heat to very low and keep stirring every few minutes for 45 minutes. Now is the perfect time to run some more quality checks on the beer and listen to some tunes.

9 After 45 minutes stir in the grated cheese and check for seasoning.

10 Serve in a bowl with the meatballs and if you are feeling so inclined a load of fresh chives.

Recipe Notes

You could of course serve these on some mashed vegetables if you cannot be bothered with cooking polenta.