Sunday, March 8, 2009

Swedish Meatballs

One day Krit requested Swedish meatballs as a fix for his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. So, I found a recipe and whipped some up. A friend had some leftovers and has been requesting them for over a year now. For his birthday, we had a Swedish meatball making lesson. We made two batches of meatballs, rice, potatoes and cucumber salad. We tried to stick with some Swedish recipes but found that challenging… here is our best attempt. Below is the recipe for the meatballs and links to the other recipes.

Glad Matlagning! (Happy Cooking)


Ingredients:

  • 1 cup fresh bread crumbs, dried out
  • ¾ cup milk
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 4 shallots, minced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 teaspoon caraway seeds, toasted and ground (*Yuck – I skip this step)
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 pound ground pork
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, plus more for garnish
  • 1 handful fresh dill, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ cups chicken broth
  • ¾ cup sour cream
  • ¼ cup lingonberry or red currant jam, plus more for serving

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs and the milk; stir with a fork and let stand for 5 minutes. Put 3 tablespoons of the butter in a small skillet and let it melt over medium heat. Add the shallots, garlic, (and caraway); season with salt and pepper. Saute until softened but not browned, about 2 minutes. Put the ground beef and pork in a large bowl. Add the shallot mixture, egg, parsley, and dill; season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the milk out of the soaked bread crumbs, add the bread to the meat mixture, and mix well using your hands. Pinch off about ½ cup worth of the meat mixture and roll it around in your moistened hands to shape it into a cue ball-sized meatball. Continue forming the meatballs and putting them on a platter; there should be about 20 meatballs.


Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over moderate heat. When the foam starts to subside, add the meatballs in batches so you don't overcrowd the pan. Saute the meatballs until well-browned on all sides, about 7 minutes total. Remove the meatballs to a platter lined with paper towels as they are done.

Discard most of the fat from the skillet and return it to the heat. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter and swirl it around to coat the pan. Sprinkle in the flour, and stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve into the fat. Pour in the chicken broth, and stir with a wooden spoon to loosen the bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer and stir until the liquid is reduced and a sauce starts to form; season with salt and pepper. Lower the heat and stir in the sour cream. Return the meatballs to the sauce and stir in ¼ cup of the lingonberry jam until combined. Simmer until the sauce thickens slightly and the meatballs are heated through, about 15 to 20 minutes. Shower with chopped parsley and transfer to a serving bowl. Serve the Swedish meatballs with additional lingonberry jam on the side.


Additional Recipes:
Here is the recipe for the potato salad. I prefer to avoid mayonnaise, so here is a recipe with a mustard, olive oil and vinegar dressing. Delish.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-specials/anns-roasted-potato-salad-recipe/index.html

The cucumber salad was simply dressed in cider vinegar, a simple syrup (sugar dissolved in water), salt and pepper. We added some slices of red onion for extra color and flavor. The detailed recipe for the cucumber salad is from the Joy of Cooking.


1 comment:

  1. This was a deceptively simple recipe. Very impressive results for not a ton of work. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete