White bean balls with pu’er sauce

Pu’er, with its notes of undergrowth and slightly sweet flavours, is excellent in many delicious and highly original tea and food pairings. It also makes a great cooking ingredient! Food blogger Vanessa from  @Deliacious has chosen to use it in this recipe which she came up with for the magazine @Esprit Veggie where it is mixed with white beans, for a vegetarian dish which is full of flavour!

White bean balls with pu’er sauce, recipe

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Makes approximately 10 balls

• 240g of cooked white beans (or one tin)
  1 tablespoon seaweed (seaweed mixture) – optional, but highly recommended
• 1 tablespoon smooth mustard
• ¼ onion or 50g shallots
• 1 tablespoon. fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon breadcrumbs

Ingredients for the tea sauce:

• 3 tsp pu’er
• 250ml water
• 1 tsp cornflour
• the zest and juice of half a lemon
• 1 tsp agave syrup
• 1 tsp sweet soya sauce
• 1 cm fresh ginger

The recipe:

In a saucepan, heat the water to the correct temperature (95°C) and brew the tea for three minutes.

Once brewed, remove the tea.

Mix the cornflour with the lemon juice (you can add a little water if needed).

Add all the sauce ingredients to the pan except the lemon zest.

Reduce and thicken over a low heat, stirring regularly, for about 20 minutes.

Rehydrate the seaweed in a little water for about ten minutes then put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and combine to obtain a dough which which holds together, but is not too sticky.

Roll into ten balls each about the size of a golf ball, and arrange them on a baking sheet (or in a dish). Brush with a little oil and bake for 15 minutes at 180°C. After baking them, you can brown them in a pan if you wish, for a more gourmet finish.

Once the sauce has thickened slightly (it will take on a more fluid teriyaki sauce texture), add the lemon zest.

Serve the meatballs warm (reheat at 160°C) with the sauce.

Enjoy !