Meatballs in Blue Cheese Sauce

October 16th, 2009 · 12 Comments · Food Porn

Nope, I can't get enough of this sauce (the 2nd one), and neither will you if you try it. Any sort of beef will do, and it's easy as can be.

Here's a kinda "recipe" for a pound of ground beef, which in my case was La Cense grassfed. But first, here's what it ends up looking like, flash enabled.

Meatballs & Blue Cheese Sauce

OK, we'll presume you know how to make balls out of ground beef. Get your cast iron or equivalent online & fatted up with tallow, lard, or bacon drippings (I used the later, about 2 heaping tbsp -- don't be shy). Fry up your meatballs, but on low to medium low heat. Be patient, they have to cook through. You're not merely browning them.

When done, move to a plate in the oven on warm. Now comes the fun.

1/4 cup of any red wine will do to deglaze the pan using a spatula. Then, in goes two soup ladles of beef stock (whatever you have and obviously, this will effect quality). I used my own beef stock and the last batch was particularly rich. Bring it to a boil, reduce to simmer, add three pats of butter and then three heaping tbsp of crumbled blue cheese. Let it simmer a while until smooth and reintroduce the meatballs.

1 tbsp at a time, stir in crème fraîche, sour cream, or even yogurt until smoother, tasting after each addition. I think it came out to 2 tbsp for me (of crème fraîche). Here's a view without the flash.

Same without the flash

Please spread the word

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12 Comments so far ↓

ToddBS // Oct 16, 2009 at 19:49

That looks amazing. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

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Michael // Oct 16, 2009 at 21:08

Richard,

I’m beginning to think maybe you should have a foodie blog as well. You post up some very nice stuff.
I enjoy the foodie corner of the blogosphere but of course have to adjust many of the recipes.

Michael
Nutrition and Physical Regeneration

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Lute Nikoley // Oct 16, 2009 at 23:52

When do I get invited over for some meat balls? Sure would like to taste some of those. Did you only make 3 of them?

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- Richard Nikoley // Oct 17, 2009 at 08:45
  
  There were eight. They’re gone now though.
  
  See you guys later, around 3pm.
  
  Reply
pjnoir // Oct 17, 2009 at 14:05

Diffuse your strobe- indirect source of light is softer than direct. Wrap a white cloth or tissue over the head and point directly at subject or bounce into a white card or celing and let the light drop/bounce back- But you know all this. Also setting a ‘curve’ or slide the contrast and brightness level in a photoshop type program opens a new world of post exposure to your image files which are just being set by the camera’s prefernces and limitations to prevent total massive goof. I’m a photg- if you like check me out here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mpix123

thanks- love your site

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pjnoir // Oct 17, 2009 at 14:28

Here is the non-strobe pic after a few very minor contrast and brightness adjustments (about 10 secs worth).

http://www.250kb.com/u/091017/j/e393f401.jpg

hope it helps.

bored at work on a saturday pjnoir

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- Richard Nikoley // Oct 18, 2009 at 09:18
  
  pjnor:
  
  Thanks for the tips. Great photography. Right now I’m just using one of these:
  
  http://us.sanyo.com:80/Digital-Camcorders/VPC-CG9-Digital-Video-and-9MP-Photos
  
  Fabulous for video and stills outside, not so great for this sort of work. I’m thinking about getting a 35mm SLR. Any recommendations at reasonable price? I would most likely use it only for the food shots.
  
  Reply
  - pjnoir // Oct 18, 2009 at 13:47
    
    I’ve always used Canons. The rebel is not a bad camera- some do video. I use a canon G9, a small powershot that does a nice job and fits in a pocket. For real work I have the 20/30Ds, but i get them from my employer. Lenses are the real expense. You can use that pic- its your image- if you like. I get a whole lot of pleaseure reading your blog. And Im glad to see you use cheese and yogurt- tough to replace its protein.
    
    Just discovered Kohlrabi (radish/broccoli taste). Dice it and pan fry in coconut oil. Burn it like home fries with your eggs.
    
    Reply
    - Richard Nikoley // Oct 18, 2009 at 15:35
      
      I have a higher end Kodak with a big lens I think I’m gonna pull out and give a try before going for anything new. I believe I can manually control the aperture and open it up such that I can focus in on the subject and blur depth of field — which to my eye is the way to do food pics. There ought to be plenty of light from my under counter setup to have sufficient light to negate the need for any flash.
      
      We’ll see how it goes.
      
      Kohlrabi. My mom discovered this when I was a kid, and just rediscovered it. A few months ago she did a simple cubed & boiled, then lots of sweet butter, a bit of salt & finely ground pepper. Fab. I’ll try your suggestion, as well, I’m gona try a puree.
      
      Reply
Kathy // Oct 17, 2009 at 19:26

Oh yum!!! Blue cheese & beef with a creamy wine sauce? Genius!

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Jamie // Nov 8, 2009 at 11:51

Richard –

I lurk here mostly, but check your site daily.

I made the meatballs today. They’re SOOOOO good. Thanks for posting food porn.

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Boulettes au Roquefort | Free The Animal // Nov 10, 2009 at 12:45

[...] even going to publish this one, but then I was looking at search logs yesterday and noticed that my meatballs in blue cheese sauce gets searched a lot. I hope you've made it and enjoyed [...]

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Free The Animal

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