I'll even share my super-secret family recipe
Meatballs in Sherry Sauce (Albondigas al Jerez)
Meatballs are a big deal for my Spanish family. You might think they're a faff to make but we even make them to eat when we're spending the day at the beach. We all fight over them and all of the women in my family make amazing versions. But the best were always my Auntie Tere's. I feel incredibly fortunate that she shared her secret with me to the perfect meatballs and so I'm here to share them with you.
Now you could always make a spicy tomato sauce for them and use the meatballs with pasta. It's super yummy and I often do… but the traditional recipe from the south of Spain is with a dry sherry sauce which is absolutely delicious and goes great with homemade fries, rice or even just a big bit of crunchy bread to mop up the sauce.
You might wonder why the recipe calls for a kilo of meat. If that seems excessive to you don't worry. You'll be surprised how much people eat! Either way, it's not worth making this in small batches. So make it and freeze what you don't use.
So here goes…
What you'll need for your meatballs:
- 1/2 a kilo of pork mince
- 1/2 a kilo of steak mince
- chopped flat leaf parsley
- natural breadcrumbs
- the juice of a lemon
- a few chopped garlic cloves
- an egg
- a splash of milk
- a splash dry sherry (a Fino like Tio Pepe or a Manzanilla like La Gitana)
- oil for frying
- a sprinkling of flour
And for the Sherry sauce:
- garlic
- bay leaf
- beef stock
- a splash of dry sherry
- cornflour for thickening
In a large bowl add the pork and steak mince, flat-leaf parsley, a couple of crushed garlic cloves, an egg, the juice of a lemon and a few of handfuls of breadcrumbs. Mix really well together and check the consistency of the mixture. You still need to add the secret ingredients: a splash of sherry (for flavour) and a splash of milk (to keep everything tender). Once you've done this add more breadcrumbs if it all feels a bit watery. The consistency just depends on how big your splashes are but to give you an idea I used about half a tub of Paxo breadcrumbs.
You're looking for something like this…
It's then time to form the meatballs! Take a spoon and scoop out a bit of the mixture. Roll between your palms until you're happy with the shape and set aside on a plate. If it helps, you can add a bit of flour to your hands but I usually don't bother. Then repeat and repeat until you're left with two platefuls of meatballs….
Once you've finished you're then ready to fry them. Add enough oil to the frying pan so that about half of the meatball will be covered once you pop them in. You can use vegetable oil but if you were in Spain you would use olive oil (which is of course much cheaper there).
Frying can feel daunting so here's my fool proof guide.
Prepare the area! I have everything to hand: a metal spoon with holes in it so that when I pick up the meatballs the oil stays in the pan, a plate for the spoon so that you don't burn yourself and a big bowl with lots of kitchen paper for the meatballs themselves. There are very few times in life when I follow this piece of my mum's advice but it absolutely applies when frying: always wear an apron.
Don't be scared but you need to make sure the oil is really hot. The meatball has to sizzle as soon as it goes in the pan. However, what you don't want to see is smoke coming from the oil. If you do, it means the oil is too hot. My advice would be to remove the oil from the heat until it's cooled down a little and then add heat gradually to it.
Add the meatballs to the pan. I use my spoon to drop them in for me which just makes sure I don't get burnt. But make sure you spread them out evenly with lots of space between them! Leave them for just about a minute before you turn them over one by one (again, use your spoon) to fry the next side.
They should be a lovely golden colour on both sides before you take them out onto the kitchen paper. I use the spoon to scoop them out and hold the plate beneath it to make sure the oil doesn't drip everywhere.
Now if you try one at this point, don't worry about the fact that they have only been cooking for a couple of minutes. They'll cook for longer once you've made the sauce so you've nothing to worry about!
So that's it. You then go on to the next batch of frying but this only takes a few minutes. A quick word of warning though… It might go without saying but I've done it before so here goes… DON'T TOUCH THE BOTTOM OF THE METAL SPOON WHEN YOU'RE PLACING THE MEATBALL IN IT. You will burn yourself. Don't do it.
Once the frying is done it's time to move onto the sauce! But if you plan on freezing some of the meatballs you can do so with or without sauce. I'm going to freeze half and make the sauce for the other half.
To start add olive oil and lightly fry a bay leaf and a couple of cloves of crushed garlic being careful not to burn it. If you would rather not have crushed garlic you could leave them whole to add a bit of flavour and then remove them. You're then ready to add the beef stock and sherry which should sizzle in the pan. Bring it up to the boil to burn off the alcohol and then turn down the heat.
To thicken the sauce you'll need to add a bit of cornflour to the mixture. The best way to do this and to not get any lumps is to make sure you dissolve the cornflour in a bit of cold water before you add it.
If you've used crushed garlic in your sauce it will already look like you have lumps but don't worry about that. They kind of dissolve by the time you've added the meatballs.
So add your cornflour and cold water mixture and cook it through for a few minutes on a low heat.
You're then ready to add the meatballs and cook for about 20 minutes. Stir very gently every so often to make sure they all get coated through with the sauce.
It's then time to enjoy these delicious Spanish treats. Yum yum!
