I fell in love with this dish on my first visit to Sweden. A colleague of mine took me to dinner at a quaint little restaurant in Stockholm and I wanted to have a typically Swedish meal. It was a toss up between pickled herring and the meatballs. I was too scared to order the herring lol.
My meatballs came and the meal was delicious. I literally wiped my plate clean. So then I spent another few days eating my way around Stockholm which I must say is a beautiful city. When I got back home the one thing I vowed to make was Swedish meatballs.
I work with a few Swedes in my office and this recipe is from one of my colleagues (He's also the one that got me the lingonberry jam that traditionally goes with the meatballs) The meatballs are great for a family meal and go really well with mash or even with spaghetti as my son prefers to have them.
Serves 4
250 grams beef mince
250 grams pork mince
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup milk
1 tbs Nutmeg
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 tbs all spice (pimento)
1 tbs Worcester Sauce
1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
1 medium red onion, grated
50 grams salted butter
500ml beef stock
1/2 cup double cream
1 tbs cornflour
We start by making the breadcrumb paste.
Put the breadcrumbs and milk into a small bowl and thoroughly stir. In a bowl place your meat, spices, 3/4 of the herbs, the egg, grated onion, salt and the breadcrumb paste. Mix through all the ingredients.
Make golf ball sized meatballs and set them aside.
Use a heavy based frying pan and melt your butter on a medium heat with a little oil to avoid the butter burning. Once the butter has melted, put your meatballs in one at a time and brown them on a medium heat. Once browned, take the meatballs out of the pan then add the beef stock to de-glaze the pan.
To this, add the double cream, Worcester sauce and cornflour. Whisk the sauce to avoid the cornflour clumping up. Add the meatballs and turn the heat to low. Let the meatballs simmer in the sauce for about 10 minutes then take off the heat.
Serve with some mash potatoes or spaghetti And garnish with the remainder of the parsley.