Oven Baked Duck Meatballs with Freshly Made Cheese

Straight from the oven, covered in fresh, white cheese

 This week has been full of meeting people, eating great food and writing. No change there I hear you say.

 I’ve worked on my new recipe book, met with the lovely Sharon from the Yorkshire Dale Meat Company, with Dawn from Che, a smashing Spanish restaurant in Stanhope that everyone should discover. Wrote a piece for an online food magazine, Chatting Food, and spent a delectable few hours with the lovely Mr G eating my way through the tasting menu at House of Tides in Newcastle. Not a bad week to have had.

Tough, but someone has to do it.

Lets not forget the hard work of having to develop recipes and eat them. When I say hard work, what I really mean is a complete and utter pleasure to be given great food and drink ingredients and create something amazing to eat. The lovely Mr G doesn’t seem to mind either.

Nor did he mind eating these duck meatballs.

Its not often I see a duck meatball (no, I’m not going to tell any jokes), and to be honest I’m not sure why we don’t see duck in this form more often?

Yes duck can be a little fatty if its not rendered down enough. Maybe people find it a little ducky (don’t even get me started on that).

No, I can’t stop myself, I need to vent about this a little.

 One of the weirdest things I hear when it comes to fish (stay with me here) is when I hear people say, “I like fish as long as it doesn’t taste too fishy”.

Ever heard that?

If not, go watch a few episodes of Come Dine With Me. Then in between the laughing, if you’ve not pulled your hair out in frustration at the “contestants” of a cooking competition not actually liking food or being able to cook I’ll be very surprised, have a listen to the sort of things they say.

 I know, they aren’t on Come Dine with Me to show off their cooking skills. I also know that it’s an entertainment show and the funniest thing about it is the amazing commentary by the very talented David Alexander Lamb.

  Everyone wants to be famous, right? Even if its being known for saying “I like fish if its not too fishy” or ,what about this one, “I know it’s a cooking competition but I haven’t made my own ice cream” or gravy, or bread, or pastry or …. Need I go on?

And Breathe.

 Is there anything that you’ve heard someone say about food that has made you laugh out loud?

 I don’t need to explain why I chose to make baked duck meatballs, if you haven’t already, check out my last blog below. It was all to do with freezer space and Mr Gs request for meatballs.

So I went ahead and made the fresh cheese, which by the way, if you haven’t tried it, is a treat in the waiting. I only made the fresh cheese to go on top of these duck meatballs, and I was so glad I did.

 But don’t you worry if you’re not feeling the urge to become a temporary cheese maker, if you check out the Tip Box at the end of the recipe, you’ll see an alternative option you can use.

 There seems to be a lot of ingredients in the sauce , don’t let it put you off making it. Once all the ingredients are in , you just have to let it cook

Just make sure you’ve some nice crusty bread ready to dip in that sauce, you won’t want to waste any of it.

Enjoy Your Sweet Life 

Baked Duck Meatballs with Freshly Made Cheese

What You Need

 The meatballs

• 2 x duck breast – skin removed

• 3 slices of stale bread

• ½ cup of warm milk – doesn’t matter what kind of milk

• ½ cup of plain flour – approx. 70 gms ( but will need more or less depending on moisture)

• Salt & Pepper

• 1 teaspoon paprika

• Small onion - grated

• 1 pack of bacon lardons – not smoked

Meat balls Rolled and Covered in Flour

 The Sauce

• 1 large onion – Finely chopped – See Tip Box

• 1 pack of bacon lardons – finely chopped – See Tip Box

• 100gms Mushrooms – finely chopped

• 1 tin chopped tomatoes – 400 gms

• 1 x teaspoon - dried Marjoram

• 2 x Tablespoons Soy Sauce – See Tip Box

• Crème Fresh – 1 tub of 300ml – See Tip Box

• 2 x teaspoon Smoked paprika

• Salt & Pepper

• 3 tablespoons of Tomato Puree

• 2 x Vegetable stock cubes dissolved in 1½ cups of boiling water

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

• Fresh cheese as much or as little as you like (see previous post and recipe) – See Tip Box

Sauce and Meatballs Ready for The Cheese

How It’s Done

 The Balls

• Put the stale bread into a medium bowl and add the warm milk. Submerge the bread in the milk so that all the milk will get absorbed by the bread. After 10 minutes , remove the bread and squeeze out any excess milk.

• Add the bacon to a food processor and pulse it a few times. Then add the skinless duck breast and pulse a few times until the met becomes a little finer-See Tip Box

• In a large bowl, add the meat, grated onion, Salt & Pepper,  paprika ,the squeezed bread and approximately half of the plain flour – See Tip Box

• Use a spoon, and mix all the ingredients together.  – Don’t over handle the mixture – See Tip Box

• Use your hands to form balls about the size of golf balls.

• Roll the duck balls in more f the plain flour and let them sit in the fridge until needed to add to the sauce.

Cheese Added. Just Pop The Lid on And Put It In The Oven

The Sauce

• Into a shallow oven proof pan which has an oven proof lid, add the oil, onion and bacon. Over a low heat , cook until the bacon is crispy and the onion is transparent.

• Add the mushroom and cook until the mushrooms are soft.

• Apart from the crème fresh, add all the other ingredients for the sauce with the addition of the stock cubes dissolved in the water.

• Place the lid onto the pot and over a very low heat, let it simmer very gently for 30 minutes. Check on the mixture frequently.

• Make sure there is enough liquid and that the mixture doesn’t catch at the bottom – See Tip Box

• Heat your oven to 180-200c

• After 30 minutes stir in all of the crème fresh and gently add all the duck meatballs to the sauce.

• Sprinkle over the cheese you are using and place the lid onto the oven proof pot

• Put the pot into the heated oven and cook for 45-1 hour until the meatballs are piping hot all the way through. Check on the duck balls half way through cooking to make sure there is enough liquid.

• Once cooked remove the pot and serve with a nice green salad and lots of crusty bread so that amazing sauce doesn’t go to waste.

  I like to take the whole pot to the table so that people can serve themselves.  

 Tip Box

• Duck skin – don’t waste the skin, season it and out in into the oven t crisp up. Yumm.

• Chopping– check out my YouTube post on chopping vegetables

• Bacon – If you don’t have bacon lardons, use a few rashers of streaky bacon. Chop the bacon finely for the sauce

• Soy Sauce – If you’re buying soy sauce, look out for the reduced salt and for cooking get the dark soy sauce.

• Crème Fresh – I used light crème fresh but use full fat if you’ve got it.

• Fresh Cheese – If you’d like to give this cheese a go, check out the previous blog which is where you’ll find the recipe. If you want to go straight to making the duck meatballs, you can use any cheese you like, but I recommend a mild soft cheese such as cottage cheese or mozzarella. Use as much or a little of the cheese as you like .My preference is to use a lot

• Food Processor – Don’t over pulse the meat, you want it to have a little bit of texture

• Adding the flour  - The amount of flour you need to add will vary. Add enough to be able to form the mixture into round ball. You don’t want the mix to be too dry.

• Handling the balls- Don’t over handle or over mix the mixture. If you do your balls with be too hard

• Simmering the sauce -  Make sure the mixture doesn’t catch on the bottom and that there is enough liquid .