This week we will be making – Festive Turkey & Bacon Meatballs in a Creamy Gravy Sauce with Roasted Parsnips with Honey Mustard Dressing

Our ingredients will focus on those associated with the festive season as December is a time for delightful ingredients such as sharp cranberries to sweet parsnips with have such a complex flavour.

Our meatballs are going to be super juicy and full of goodness including turkey, pork and bacon, onions, cranberries, bread, milk, and herbs, served in a creamy gravy sauce made from the meat juices.

Meatballs nearly always include two meats normally beef, and veal/pork. Ours will use pork and turkey to keep it festive. Turkey and smoky, salty bacon pairs well with fruit which is readily associated with the festive season. Fresh and dried cranberries are excellent in sauces, cakes, desserts and stuffing’s. Fresh cranberries are used to make the popular accompaniment to turkey, cranberry sauce.

A tip for making soft meatballs is to use a panade – which is a mixture of starch like bread mixed with a liquid like cranberry juice which is then added to minced meat.

Our sauce will be made from the meat juices from pan frying our meatballs. The base of this sauce will be a velouté which is one of the five mother sauces of classical cuisine. Like béchamel, velouté is thickened with a roux. Velouté is made with stock. We will be finishing our sauce with cream and sage.

“We will serve this with Roasted Parsnips with Honey Mustard Dressing
Parsnips have a unique flavour and roasting them brings out the sweetness we will make a honey mustard dressing to drizzle over with a chestnut crumb which will take them to another level! Chestnuts have a sweet crumbly flesh and, unlike other nuts, are low in fat. Roast chestnuts are a traditional winter treat and can be cooked on an open fire, in the oven or in a frying pan. Available from mid October to December.”

Skills used include: Weighing, measuring, peeling, grating, cutting, slicing, mixing/combining, blending, simmering, boiling, reducing, roasting, soaking, and mashing, shaping into balls, pan frying, making a sauce from meat juices.

See you Saturday Junior Chefs!