On Meatballs and Pumpkins

Inspired by a sausage I found at a pumpkin festival

Hello all, I hope you are doing well.

This week I have a recipe for you that went down a treat at a family gathering this weekend. It’s a pork meatball/patty kind of situation made oh so tender with the addition of a little softened pumpkin. Served with some exceptionally silky potato puree, I think it’s a very welcome addition to anyone’s pumpkin repertoire.

Wil

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There’s an old Finnish saying that translates into English something like:

“Whoever has joy, let them hide it.”

I know. A bit severe, really. But in some ways, I think it sums up a few things about life here in Finland. In my experience the people here actually are a little restrained, and certainly modest. I think this is reflected in the culture here as well: the gentle Moomins on the TV, for example, or the love of evenings spent quietly relaxing in the sauna with nothing but a firm, grilled sausage for entertainment.

Of course, I’m ignoring the Finnish love for extravagant death metal to make my point here, I admit.

But I thought of that saying and all it’s suggestions when I went to what I can only describe as a Finnish Pumpkin Festival recently with the family.

It might be the most un-Finnish experience I’ve had here.

At the heart of everything is a pumpkin farm selling their wares. But on top of this they had added a Halloween fever dream that felt a long way from Moominvalley.

The wee lad in blue is my son, and he found the entire experience, particularly the skeletons, joyous. I, being so inclined, was rather more taken with the food on offer. In particular, a sausage on sale advertised as kurpitsamakkara, or pumpkin sausage in English.

I thought the idea was great, and I took the chance to go and talk to the fella selling them to ask about them. In-between my hideously broken Finnish and his rapid-fire local dialect, I could just about make out that he likes to eat his pumpkin sausage with strawberry jam.

My wife assured me I had understood him correctly.

This week’s recipe is my tribute to those very lovely sausages. I’ve tried to up the pumpkin-ness of them, which I felt a little lacking in that original sausage. This extra balance of pumpkin renders them beautifully tender with a sweet richness, and sees that they bleed a very satisfying golden fat when they’re cooked.

A few meatball/patty tips

Having lived and worked as a chef in Sweden, meatballs have come to be an important part of my cooking life. I learnt in Sweden to make liberal use of breadcrumbs soaked in milk to make tender meatballs, for example. But it’s a tip I picked up from my Finnish mother in law that I thought sounded dreadful at first that’s helped improve my meatballs even further.

This simple tip is the use of carbonated water. Not only does the liquid add lightness to the mix, but the acidity of the carbonated water tenderises the meat mix as well.

The other tip I have for you is to only gently, and briefly as possible, mix the meat. I advise against using a machine. I once worked with a particularly stubborn cook who always knew best. It was his job to make meatballs for a lunch special once. He left the ground meat and flavourings spinning in an industrial dough mixer while he went for a cigarette, convinced doing so would tenderise the meat.

Those meatballs of his had the consistency of tennis balls.

So, yes, do unlike my old colleague. Work your meatball mix gently and as little as possible. This recipe’s addition of carbonated water and the pumpkin helps make them even more delicate.

Before we get to the recipe, if you’re a paid subscriber and interested in using your pumpkin for something sweet, check out my pumpkin and miso bread recipe that I’m rather fond of from last year by clicking below.

Pumpkin pork patties with potato puree

Ingredients (serving 5-6)

400g pork mince
1 small pumpkin (I used a hokkaido pumpkin)
100ml sparkling water
40g white breadcrumbs
1 tsp fine salt
1 tsp dry sage

1kg medium-waxy potatoes (here in Finland I use annabelles)
150g room temp butter
150g milk
150g cream
1 tsp salt

Method

Give your pumpkin a good wash, quarter it and remove the seeds. Rub a little oil into it and roast it at 200C/400F until cooked through and soft. Takes about 45 minutes.

Blend the pumpkin, skin and all, in a processor. Set 200g aside for this recipe, save the rest for the pumpkin bread recipe I linked to above! That’s right, no need to take the skin away. The skin has loads of roasted pumpkin flavour and golden colour.

Leave the puree to cool before blending with the pork, breadcrumbs, water, salt and sage. Let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour.

Now for my way of making my favourite mash/potato puree. I steam the potatoes until entirely tender and pass them through a ricer, one of those kitchen appliances that looks like a giant garlic press. I then add the warmed milk/cream mix until totally combined and then gently beat in softened butter. I then add 1 teaspoon of salt and that’s the perfect potato puree in my opinion. Rich but light and perfectly seasoned. No infused garlic, pepper, or herbs. Just really knock-out potato. I’ve been making it this way in restaurants and home for years and I love it.

I like to make smallish patties for this recipe. They are very tender when cooked and I find the smaller size holds together better than if they are too big. I fry them in a touch of oil until crisp and deeply caramelised with luscious sticky bits before putting on a tray to finish in the oven at 180C/350F to cook through.

Once cooked they’ll remain soft, moist, pumpkin-sweet with a sausage-y hit but much lighter. I know I’m not going to win any awards from the International Vegan Society with this recipe, but I do rather like how the addition of so much pumpkin bulks out the meat. That must mean something, right?

I loved this with sauerkraut, some lingonberry jam (a little less sweet than strawberry) and mustard. The silky potato and moist patties required no further sauce at all.

I hope you like them, they proved a lovely family meal for us here in Finland.

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