Pork Meatballs with Fennel and Juniper

Who doesn't love a good meatball (well, non-meat-eaters, obviously)? Add a slightly exotic flavour with fennel and juniper berries.

Peel and dice the onion. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and gently cook the onion until soft but not browned. This will take about 10 minutes. While that's happening, peel and mince the garlic and crush the juniper berries (a mortar and pestle is good for this). Add these to the onions along with the dried sage, half a teaspoon of salt and several grinds of black pepper. Mix it all together and let it cook for a couple of minutes then remove from the heat and let it cool down.

When the onion mixture is cool, mix it in with the pork, making sure it's evenly distributed. Now you need to divide the meat into twelve equal balls - I weighed mine and they worked out at about 50 grams (2 ounces) each.

Trim the frilly fronds off your fennel bulb - keep them for garnish. Cut about half of the fennel into thin strips and keep the remaining half for another dish. Heat some oil in the frying pan and cook the meatballs. Turn them occasionally to get them evenly browned all over. Then remove them from the pan and add the strips of fennel. You may need to add more oil. Cook the fennel until it's soft, about five minutes. Add the meatballs back in, cover the pan with a lid and let it simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Now we're going to make a sauce. Add the chicken stock and thicken it with a slurry of cornflour and cold water. When the sauce has thickened a little, turn down the heat and add the cream. Cook for a few minutes longer then add a squeeze of lemon juice and serve with boiled new potatoes and the finely chopped fennel fronds sprinkled on top as a garnish.