Fried lamb-balls stuffed with fontina cheese

In London, one amazing thing you can treat yourself before brunch is a Scottish Egg. It’s basically a hard boiled egg, wrapped in sausage and deep fried. It’s an amazing snack to have with your Bloody Mary.  I was thinking of a version of the famed Gramercy Tavern meatball that could be served at parties as a nighttime treat with cocktails — so after a lot of tries, we came up with this hearty lamb, veal, cheese hors d’oeuvre.

• 2 pounds freshly ground lamb, 1 pound freshly ground veal, both meats mixed together
• 1 pound of fontina cheese cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 cups of minced yellow onion
• 1 cup of finely chopped red onion
• 1 tablespoon of finely chopped rosemary
• 2 tablespoons of finely chopped thyme
• 2 tablespoons of dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons of paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes that have been ground in a herb blender or finely chop the spice with a knife
• 3 tablespoons of salt
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
• 2 cups just grated parmesan cheese.  You can chop in blocks and drop in the food processor or blender.
• 1 1/2 cups of panko breadcrumbs that have been mixed with two tablespoons of heavy cream
• 4 large eggs beaten
• 6 tablespoon of roasted and mashed garlic (roast garlic cover with olive oil at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, reserve olive oil for cooking, mash softened garlic)
• Vegetable oil for deep frying

The Tools

• Large Staub dutch oven
• Candy theromometer
• Blender or food processor

Making It

• Sauté the onions in the melted butter over medium heat with the rosemary, thyme and oregano for 2 minutes
• Add the paprika, red pepper flakes salt and pepper until translucent, about 8 minutes
• Take off heat and cool in the refrigerator as you don’t want to mix hot ingredients with the cold meat
• Add the cooled onions to the ground meats and mix in the parmesan cheese, panko breadcrumbs, eggs, and garlic puree, flake with a fork until all the ingredients are properly mixed
• Roll lamb mix into larger than usual meatballs with a block of fontina in the middle of each one, around 1 1/4 inch, place on baking sheet and let sit for 20 minutes to allow the flavors to connect

Time to Cook

• Heat the oil to 360 degrees
• Fry in batches of 8, for five minutes
• Let the temperature get back to 360 degrees between each batch
• Let rest for 5 minutes on paper towels and serve on a bed of marinara sauce sprinkled with freshly grated parmesan cheese