Mountain Meatballs

Monster meatballs stuffed with cheese and smothered in a rich chilli sauce-delicious! Don't be put off by the seemingly never ending list of ingredients...it's not that bad, and the results are well worth it. I make smaller ones for the children, and they love them ( adjust the cooking time accordingly though!)

• Ready In: 1 hr 10 mins
• Yields: 8 meatballs

Ingredients

•  olive oil
• 2  red onions, finely diced
• 1 1⁄4 kg  quality  minced meat (beef, buffalo, or a mixture)
• 1  teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1  teaspoon dried oregano
• 1  pinch cumin seed, bashed with a mortar and pestle
• 1  teaspoon  coriander seed, bashed with a mortar and pestle
• 2  handfuls  breadcrumbs
• 2  large eggs
•  sea  salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 100  g  grated cheddar cheese

• Chilli Sauce

• 1  large red onion, finely diced
• 2  red peppers or 2  yellow peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 10  garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced
• 1 -2  red chile, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1⁄2 teaspoon  smoked paprika
• 6  tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 6  tablespoons tomato ketchup
• 6  tablespoons cider vinegar
• 6  tablespoons molasses or 6  tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2  tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 400  ml  hot coffee
• 3  plum tomatoes, quartered
• 1  small  bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to it's highest setting ( or to moderately hot if making smaller balls). Put a large pan on a medium heat and add a slug of olive oil. Add the 2 diced onions and fry for about ten minutes or until softened, then remove from heat and leave to cool completely.
2. Put the minced meat into a bowl with the mustard, oregano, cumin, coriander, breadcrumbs, eggs and a good pinch of salt and pepper and the cooled onions. Give it a good scrunch with your hands to combine everything evenly, then divide into eight rounds.
3. Roll each round into a cricket ball sized ball ( baseball sized for you guys in the USA!), then stick your thumb into the middle of each ball and stuff in some grated cheddar. Cup and pack and pat the meat around the cheese, and mould it back into a ball. repeat with remaining rounds, then place the balls in a large oiled casserole dish or roasting try, drizzle over a slug of olive oil and stick it into the oven for 25 to 30 minutes until golden and sizzling.
4. Using kitchen towel wipe out the pan that you cooked your onions in and put it back on the heat with a slug of olive oil in it.add the onion, peppers,garlic,fresh chillies and paprika and fry gently for about 15 minutes. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, vinegar, molasses or sugar, mustard, coffee and tomatoes and bring everything to the boil.
5. Turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened. If you like it thicker, turn the heat up and cook a little longer.
6. Remove the meatballs from the oven and spoon away as much of the fat from the pan as you can. Pour over the chilli sauce and return pan to the oven for 5 minutes.
7. Throw on your chopped parsley and serve with mash or rice and a green salad.