Swedish meatballs – Copyright Coquere
Served with mashed potatoes and a creamy sauce, taste excellent
Swedish meatballs
Swedish meatballs or svenska köttbullar. I love Swedish meatballs, Swedish pastries, Sweden, the Swedes, the Swedish language and Malmö is my favourite city. I’m a little above average Swedish fan I.e. However, all countries have some variant of minced meat that is mixed up and fried. I may not be completely objective, but the Swedish meatballs are smaller and always contain bread crumbs. This makes them juicier and more delicious in my opinion. Swedish meatballs served with mashed potatoes and a cream sauce, or the typical Norwegian brown sauce, they taste excellent. Easy to make and guaranteed to be a hit among children and adults alike. A little curiosity; in Sweden they have a dedicated day to meatballs. The Meatball Day at August 23. The recipe yielded 24 pieces of Swedish meatballs of 32-34 grams.
Ingredients:
500 g minced meat of beef, or a combination of beef and pork.
1 egg
1 dl whipping cream or light cream
0.75 dl breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon mustard (Swedish if you can get hold of it)
½ small yellow onion
1/5 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
Butter for frying
Directions:
- Whisk together the egg, cream and mustard.
- Mix in the bread crumbs, then allow rest for approx. 10 minutes.
- Grate the onion on a shredder or the like.
- Mix the onions, spices and minced meat into the bread crumb mixture. Don’t work it too long – then the dough becomes chewy and the meatballs hard.
- Wear plastic gloves or use clean hands. If you use cold water or some oil on your hands it’s easier to shape the meatballs. Use approx. 1 tbsp per meatball, shape and roll into small Swedish meatballs. Test fry a meatball and taste it. Add more spices if you want more pepper or salt.
Fry on medium heat in a frying pan with butter: Fry the meatballs until they have a nice surface. Roll them around while you fry, to keep the shape. Do not fill the entire frying pan, but take a few at a time. Otherwise the meatball will be cooked instead of fried, and becomes both dry and hard. You use approx. 10 minutes to fry them completely through, but this should be a part of your test roasting. If they are to be frozen and heated in the oven again, they do not need to be fully cooked – because they will easily then get dry when reheated.
Served: Heated with cream sauce, mashed potatoes and lingonberries. Traditionally, the Swedes have a cucumber salad, but it can be varied with all possible vegetables to your liking.
Allergy: Contains gluten, if you do not use gluten-free breadcrumbs. Made easy lactose-free by using lactose-free cream. High FOODMAP is mainly due to onions and the lactose. If you use onion powder and lactose-free cream, you will reduce the FOODMAP.
For the curious – meatballs around the world: Meatballs