Awesome meatballs with cardamom, cloves and black pepper!
I love meatballs. In any form. Usually I make them with pork meat. But now venison meatballs are on the menu. So I managed to have 700 grams of minced deer meat in the fridge and I wanted to make something really new with that. For me, living in Norway it is easy to get game meat. We have deer, moose, reindeer. These beautiful animals roam the forest and I regularly see a deer in my garden.
I must say the quality of the meat here is fabulous and the prices are really very decent. I buy it a local store who gets it from a butcher living in the countryside. The meat is pure and honest. No antibiotics or other nasty things in it. God provides here!
This recipe is a (luckily very successful) tryout, I had no idea whether they were good or not. You have to experiment sometimes and see what comes out. Chances are that you ruin some good ingredients but in my experience that hardly ever happens.
Using ingredients that are readily available. And a variety of techniques. As half my family are on a gluten free diet these venison meatballs are made oats. And I love cardamom, so I had to try with freshly ground cardamom.
The combination of cardamom, black pepper and cloves give a very deep taste. Almost dark, fitting to the red deer mince I had. I can still taste them now almost an hour after eating the last one as the kids gobbled them up in no time.
And whether to make a sauce or use these more as a snack with some , but after tasting I must say they are quite special. So I decided to quickly make a mustard-mayonnaise.
These meatballs are not just meat. There is carrot, onion, garlic in there. Together with the homemade mustard-mayonnaise they make a delicious juicy snack. Combine with a glass of port or a deep red Bordeaux wine. I guess some cheese would also go well with this.
Go make them and let me know if you like them as much as we do.
PrintVenison meatballs
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 40 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Scrumptious meatballs for a snack or with a drink. Made with minced meat from Norwegian deer and spiced with cardamom, a huge favorite here in Scandinavia.
Make a lot, as they will be gone in no time.
Ingredients
For the meat balls:
- 700 grams venison
- 1 big carrot
- 1 big onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 egg
- plenty of oats
- 2 table spoons of white vinegar
Spice mix:
- 6 cardamoms
- 3 cloves
- 12 whole black peppercorns
- 10 grams salt
Instructions
- Prepare the spice mix in a mortar and pestle. I take out the shells of the cardamoms and only use the inner seeds.
- Cut the onion and carrot into small pieces. Cut the garlic very fine.
- Put onion, carrot and garlic with some olive oil in a pan and gently cook them until soft.
- Use an immersion blender to grind the soft onions, carrots and garlic to a paste.
- Now take a big bowl and put in the meat, egg, vinegar and plenty of oats.
- Mix by hand.
- Put the meat ball mix in a food processor and give it a few pulses (I use my Magimix XL for this) till you get the consistency as seen in the picture.
- Prepare a baking tray and line it with parchment paper.
- Set the oven to pre-heat to 170 degrees Celsius or 350 Fahrenheit.
- Now it is time to get your hands dirty. The meat mix will feel light and sticky. If you feel it is too soft add more oats or some bread crumbs or cornstarch. You can wet your hands with a little water to avoid the balls sticking too much
- Make the meatballs and put them on the baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes. Check one and cut it in half to see whether they are all done on the inside. If not, give them a few more minutes.
- Serve hot or cold with home made mustard mayonnaise
- Håper det smaker!
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 20
- Category: Snacks
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: World
