Food & Drink

‘You don’t have to overspend to make amazing meals’: Niall McKenna’s pork meatballs and pork terrine

Quick and easy dishes for the colder months

Pork meatballs
Pork meatballs
By Niall McKenna

Cooking is one of the most valuable skills you can have, and with time and practice you can make great tasting dishes, even using the cheaper cuts of meat on the market. You don’t have to overspend to make amazing meals. Pork can be one of these underrated and yet wonderfully versatile ingredients.

We use it often at home for quick and tasty dinners but also to cook something delicious when entertaining guests. This is why for this week’s recipes I have chosen Pork Meatballs and a Pork Terrine.

Alongside the meatballs I’ve included a rich tomato sauce recipe to accompany the dish, the tomato and butterbean flavours combine beautifully with the hearty taste of the meatballs. This is a quick and easy dish to make for all those at the table and makes for a perfectly warming dish in these colder months.

Making a terrine for a dinner party can be a real showstopper, its appearance and decadent flavour will leave your loved ones wowed. It is delicious served simply alongside buttered sourdough, the local butter Abernethy being a particular favourite of mine, which is easily available online and undeniably tasty.

Give these recipes a try at home and let me know what you think.

Pork Meatballs

(Serves 4–5)

Ingredients

  • 500g pork mince
  • 1 onion, peeled and grated
  • 1 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • Sea salt
  • Fresh ground black pepper

For the sauce

  • 500g fresh plum tomatoes
  • 50g butter
  • 1 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 large garlic cloves fine slice
  • 2 tsp caster sugar
  • 1 tin butterbeans, drained
  • 100g baby tomatoes, halved
  • Sea salt
  • Fresh ground pepper

Method

  • Take your pork out of the fridge and place in a bowl, kneading with damp hands. This helps to bind the proteins in the meat for cooking.
  • When soft and pliable, add in the grated onion, parsley and beaten egg. Mix well and season with salt and pepper. Then start to roll the mix into balls using the palms of your hands.
  • You want to seal off your meatballs before adding them to the sauce. Heat the olive oil in a pan and once bubbling add in the meatballs and lightly brown, turning them carefully. Remove from the heat once browned.
  • To make the sauce you want to blanche off the tomatoes and take the skin off. Take each plum tomato and make an incision at the top of each one in a cross. Place them in a bowl and cover with boiling hot water. Leave for a minute and one by one, carefully remove from the water and peel off the skins and discard the skin. Do this using a clean cloth if the tomatoes are too hot to handle. Repeat this with all the tomatoes and chop.
  • Take the butter and place in a pan and melt. Then add in the chopped tomatoes, garlic and onion. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes until the tomatoes are soft. Stir in the sugar and season with salt and pepper.
  • Depending on how you like your sauce you can blend using a stick blender or leave it as is. Add in the butterbeans and warm through, next add in the halved baby tomatoes and meatballs into the sauce and leave on a gentle heat with the lid on for 10 minutes.
  • Sprinkle with the remaining parsley and serve straight from the pan.
Pork terrine
Pork terrine

Pork Terrine

Ingredients

  • 600g smoky bacon (or enough to line terrine dish)
  • Knob of butter
  • Splash of olive oil
  • 300g finely chopped onions
  • 20g puréed garlic
  • 4g allspice
  • 30ml Madeira
  • 60ml port
  • 650g minced pork
  • 115g smoked back bacon, minced
  • 225g chicken livers, minced
  • 200g pork back fat, minced
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 2g chopped rosemary
  • 10g whole peppercorns
  • 5g salt

Method

Ideally make this 3 days before serving.

  • Preheat oven to 110ᵒC/Gas ¼ with a bain-marie of hot water in it. Line a large terrine dish with foil and line with bacon, leaving sufficient overhang to cover the top.
  • Melt the butter with the oil in a frying pan and gently sweat the onions, garlic and allspice until soft, then leave to cool.
  • Mix the Madeira and port together in a pan and boil to reduce by two thirds then leave to cool.
  • Mix all the minced meats and fat with the eggs to bind them, then mix the cool onions and wine reduction along with the rosemary, peppercorns and salt.
  • Fill the lined terrine, packing it in as tight as possible. Hit onto a chopping board to remove any trapped air.
  • Fold over the bacon to cover the mix and finally cover with overlapping foil.
  • Bake in the bain-marie in the preheated oven for about 80 minutes or until the centre of the terrine reaches 70ᵒC.
  • Take out of the bain-marie and leave to cool at room temperature. Ideally leave in the fridge or a cool place for three days before using to give the flavours a chance to develop.

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