Cheese-Stuffed Meatballs with Mushroom Ragout
·Season the ground meat
Put the ground meat in a bowl, add the egg, and season with garlic, salt and pepper. Mix well, ideally kneading it together with your hands. Feel free to add your favourite spices too — we tried garam masala once and the meatballs turned out great.
Shape the meatballs and bake
Shape the meat mixture into balls. Push a piece of gouda into the centre of each one, then seal and reshape the meatball so the cheese is completely enclosed. Arrange all the meatballs in a baking dish. Once the dish is full, bake in an oven preheated to 200°C for 20 minutes.
Boil the potatoes
While the meatballs are baking, put the potatoes on to boil for the mash and prepare the mushroom ragout.
Mushroom ragout
Clean the mushrooms and cut them into small pieces. Finely chop the shallot. Melt some butter in a large pan and sauté the shallot in it. After five minutes, add the mushrooms. Season with thyme, salt and pepper.
Sauté until done
Cook until the mushrooms are done, roughly 15 to 20 minutes. Finally, stir in the chopped parsley.
Mashed potatoes
Add hot milk and a generous knob of butter (really, don't be shy) to the potatoes and whip with a hand mixer. The mash turns out wonderfully light and fluffy.