Paleo Pork Patties

Paleo Pork Patties….You’ve got to love a bit of alliteration. These could also have been called squashed pork meatballs, but that didn’t sound as appetising! And the letter P is significant. More on that later. First I want to tell you about the time I went shopping in the local supermarket wearing a ball gown and tiara.

Yes you read that right, I once went shopping in a tiara!

When my eldest brother was at medical school, he and his friends struggled and stressed their way through their pathology finals. So on completion of the exam they held a P party. (P for pathology….you got that right? 😉 ) A house party full of potential doctors……you can bet your bottom dollar that my sister and I were going! 😉

She went down the tom boy route and dressed as a pirate, including toy parrot and eye liner ‘stubble’. I went girly and dressed up as a princess, with a pale blue ball gown, sliver slippers and a crystal tiara. (I was a pale blue wearing princess long before Elsa could even say the word ‘Frozen’!!!)

We got ourselves dressed up and set off in the car to drive up to London. We made a small mistake, we didn’t stop to buy our wine before we got dressed in fancy dress! Enter two slightly embarrassed girls shopping for wine in the local supermarket (in England you can buy wine along with your groceries) on a Saturday afternoon! Doh! It is the one and only time I have been shopping in a tiara! Neither my sister or I met prince charming that night, but we had a great time and I now have a shopping in a tiara story.

You might be asking where this is all leading, I promise you this all makes sense and is following some sort of logical progression. You see Mr 4 is doing the letter ‘P’ in Kindy this week. They have been learning the sound, recognising words that beginning with P, so all week he has been coming up with words. His favourite two, by far, have been Panda and Poo! He loves pandas, he has a panda stuffed toy that he loves to pieces; panda (imaginatively name 😉 ) goes everywhere with him, which is a good job as the day of the fire, panda was at the park with us!

Today Kindy are having their very own ‘P’ party. See, I told you it made sense! 😉

Everyone is dressing up as things beginning with P and they are taking in a party picnic with food beginning with P. And so my pork meatballs have become pork patties. And given that I rarely add breadcrumbs to my meatballs I can add an extra level of P as these are Paleo. Making them perfect for dieters, gluten intolerant fathers or carb avoiding other halves. (YES STILL!!!)

The kindys are having these cold with a variety of sauces, but I usually serve them hot, with either a creamy sauce (Ikea style) or stuffed into burger buns with barbecue sauce or on a platter with a big bowl of mustard mayo. They also work well in place of sausages if you get a request for sausage and mash, which happens at least once a week in our house!

I don’t use a food processor to mix my ingredients as I find it chops the meat up too much and you end up with dense meatballs which take longer to cook and then dry out. If your squeeze the mince through your fingers and twist and turn it all in the bowl you can mix it very effectively by hand.

I made a big batch of these up last night, so if you live nearby I was the crazy lady who was frying onions at 11pm!!! I wanted to have them cooked last night so I could get a few photos this morning before Mr 4 went to school with them. I have discovered that the light at 6:30am is rather good for taking photos! Which is a shame as I doubt I will be taking advantage of that very often!

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 INGREDIENTS

Makes 25 patties

• 1 small onion
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 500 g pork mince
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp dried sage
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp dried chives
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• pinch freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Finely chop the onions. You can pulse them in the food processor, but make sure they don’t turn to mush.
2. Add the olive oil to a frying pan and cook the onions over a medium heat until softened and starting to colour.
3. Remove them from the heat and allow to cool.
4. Place the pork mince, lemon juice, sage, thyme, paprika, chives, mustard, pepper and salt into a large bowl and use your hands to mix and combine the ingredients.
5. Add the cooled onions and squelch the mixture between your fingers until you have incorporated everything evenly.
6. Take a small amount of the mixture (approximately 1/2 tablespoon) and form into a small patty.
7. Place the patty on a plate and continue to form patties with the remaining mince mixture.
8. Place your frying pan back on the heat, there is no need to add any oil.
9. Cook the patties over a low/medium heat for 2-3 minutes aside until just cooked through.
10. Do not over crowd the frying pan. Unless you have a monster frying pan, you will need to cook in batches. Place the cooked patties on a covered plate in a low oven.
11. Serve with your choice of dips or with your favourite pepper sauce.