Friday, February 4, 2011

Cooking: Swedish Meatballs



I hadn't made this dish before but it was so easy and tasty that I'm sure I'll be making it again and again.

Throw a handful of chopped fresh herbs, like flat-leaf parsley, dill or chives (or all three!) into a bowl with 300g of fresh pork mince and 300g of fresh beef mince. Add 75g of breadcrumbs, 100 ml of milk, one egg and a teaspoon of allspice. Mix together with your hands. To make “elegant meatballs” I rolled half the mixture into a sausage shape and then sliced it up before rolling the meatballs (keeping hands wet as much as possible).

Lay the meatballs on an oiled tray, cover with cling film and refrigerate for an hour.

Heat some olive oil in a pan and gently fry the meatballs, rolling them around the pan until browned and transfer cooked meatballs to a plate.

Drain the oil from the pan and add the juice of half a lemon, a tablespoon of plain flour, 60 ml of double cream (I used regular cream and increased the amount I added), and 300ml of beef stock. The recipe I was following also called for the addition of a heaped tablespoon of berry jam, but I dispensed with that.

Bring to the boil, then simmer until the sauce thickens enough to stick to the meatballs. Return meatballs to the pan and stir until they are well coated.

I served the meatballs with some baked potatoes and a crunchy salad with lettuce, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, grated carrot and spring onions.

Yum yum!

I found this recipe in Jamie Oliver's book Jamie does Spain, Italy, Sweden, Morocco, Greece and France.