Pulled Pork Bitterballen

Difficulty: Easy | Prep time: 3 hours

The biggest downside of making pulled pork is that you often end up with leftovers. The recipe above, for example, makes 2.5 to 3 kilos of pulled pork. Luckily, pulled pork freezes well, but there are other great options too. In this recipe, we turn leftover pulled pork into bitterballen.

Tip: Make the bitterballen before freezing your pulled pork; that way they keep well for longer.

Ingredients:

• fine breadcrumbs
• coarse breadcrumbs (e.g. panko)
• 5 egg whites
• 10 g flour

Ragout:

• 400 g pulled pork
• 1 onion
• 2 tsp barbecue rub (the same one used for the pulled pork)
• 550 ml water
• 1 beef stock cube
• 100 g flour
• 90 g butter
• 6 g gelatin (about 3.5 leaves)
• 50 ml heavy cream
• 2 egg yolks
• pepper
• salt

Preparation:

First, Gijs soaks the gelatin in a cup of water. Then he starts making a stock. He finely chops an onion, heats 10 grams of butter, and gently sautés the chopped onion.

Once the onion is fully translucent, 550 ml water, one beef stock cube, and 2 teaspoons of barbecue rub are added. Gijs brings it to a boil and, once satisfied with the flavor, strains the stock to remove the onion pieces.

The next step is making a roux. Gijs heats the remaining 80 grams of butter until it foams but does not brown. Then he adds 100 grams of flour and stirs with a whisk until it forms a crumbly paste: the roux.

Now Gijs adds the stock to the roux little by little while stirring. He lets it simmer briefly, still stirring, until the raw flour taste is gone. While stirring, he seasons with pepper and salt. After simmering, the soaked gelatin is stirred in. This smooth mixture forms the base of our ragout.

To turn this base ragout into pulled pork bitterballen, Gijs shreds 400 grams of pulled pork and cuts it into shorter pieces. Then he whisks 2 egg yolks with 50 ml cream and stirs this, together with the pulled pork, into the ragout.

To roll nice balls, Gijs lets the ragout firm up in the freezer for about an hour. Make sure it does not fully freeze: it should stay kneadable and sticky enough to shape into balls, but firm enough not to collapse afterward. If you want to play it safe, you can also let the ragout set overnight in the fridge.

Now that the ragout has firmed up, the bitterballen can be rolled. Gijs lightly beats 5 egg whites with 10 grams of flour in a large bowl. In two other bowls, he prepares fine and coarse breadcrumbs. He then forms balls of about 20 grams of ragout and rolls them in fine breadcrumbs until fully coated and dry. This creates the inner crust layer that keeps the ragout inside during frying. Then he rolls the balls through the egg-white mixture.

Note: only a very thin layer is needed, otherwise your bitterballen will taste like egg. Finally, he coats each bitterbal in coarse breadcrumbs and places them on a tray. The bitterballen should go back in the freezer for another 2 hours before frying, otherwise the breadcrumbs may come loose in the fryer.

When freezing, make sure the bitterballen are not packed too tightly, or they will stick together.

Now that the bitterballen are ready, it is time to fry them. Just like store-bought bitterballen, fry them straight from frozen. After about 4 minutes at 175°C (depending on size), they are ready to eat. These bitterballen will definitely surprise your guests.

They have a clear barbecue pulled-pork flavor and are nothing like standard supermarket or snack-bar bitterballen. Absolutely worth trying.