Description
Skilpadjies are a naturally gluten free meatball recipe because they don’t rely on bread crumbs as a binder, but rather use caul fat (a.k.a. crépine or netvet) as a tasty casing to hold everything together (and lend a flavor reminiscent of bacon).
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/2 lb ground lamb rump (or other lean cut of meat such as lamb leg, beef chuck, pork loin)
- 1/2 lb ground lamb liver (or beef or pork liver)
- 1/2 lb ground lamb breast (or other fatty cut of meat such as pork belly, beef navel, beef short rib)
- 1/4 lb caul fat
- 1/4 cup chopped scallions
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 1 large egg (optional)
- 5 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp salt
- fresh ground black pepper
- optional wheel of either Brie or Camembert cut into small chunks
Instructions
- Put the ground meat, onions, scallions, egg (optional), coriander, salt, and pepper into a mixing bowl and combine thoroughly. (I use my hands)
- Form little patties. I made mine roughly 1.5 inches in diameter and roughly 0.75 inches thick.
- If you are adding the optional cheese (Brie or Camembert), make sure you’ve got chunks hidden inside your patties.
- Wrap your patties in a layer of caul fat. It sticks pretty well to the meat and to itself, so you won’t need to tie any fancy knots or anything.
- Preheat you frying pan with your favorite cooking oil.
- Pan fry the patties until they form a deep brown crust (flipping every 30 seconds or so to ensure even and thorough cooking without burning).
Notes
• Lamb meat would be the most traditional (and in my opinion the tastiest), but substitute away if you have different preferences and/or just want to try something different.
• If you want a more nutritious/traditional/flavorful batch, skip the rump (or equivalent) and double up on the liver.