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Swedish Meatball Recipe L'Appart by David Lebovitz

Swedish Meatballs (Boulettes suédoises)

Tasha Powell
This recipe come from "L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home" by David Lebowitz. David has fond memories of the Swedish meatballs served at the cafes in Ikea stores.
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Swedish
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
 
 

For the Meatballs:

  • cup milk, whole
  • cup Bread Crumbs
  • 1 tbsp Vegetable Oil plus more for frying the meatballs
  • 1 tbsp Butter
  • 1 medium Onion finely diced
  • 1 ¼ pounds Ground Beef preferably 80% lean
  • 1 pound Ground Pork
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tbsp Kosher Salt or Sea Salt
  • ½ tsp Freshly Grated Nutmeg
  • ¼ tsp Ground Allspice
  • Freshly Ground Black Pepper

For the Sauce:

  • 5 tbsp (2.5 oz) Unsalted Butter cut into cubes
  • cup All-purpose Flour
  • 4 cups Beef Stock
  • ¾ cup Crème Fraîche or Sour Cream
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
  • Salt to taste
  • Freshly Ground Black Pepper

For Serving:

  • Serve on warm noodles, such as egg noodles.
  • Garnish with chopped fresh parsley lingonberry jam or cranberry sauce.

Instructions
 

Make the Meatballs:

  • In the stand mixer bowl, stir together the milk and the bread crumbs by hand. Let stand a few minutes so the bread crumbs can absorb most or all of the milk.
  • In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil and butter. Add the onion and cook, occasionally stirring, until it's translucent, about 3 minutes. Scrape the onion into the stand mixer bowl with the bread crumbs. Wipe the skillet clean with a paper towel and set it aside.
  • Add the ground beef and pork to the mixer bowl, then add the eggs, salt, nutmeg, and allspice and season with pepper. Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment and set the mixer on low speed. Then, increase the speed steadily to high and beat everything together for 1 minute.
  • Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Form the mixture into meatballs, using 1 tablespoon per meatball and roll them into rounds with your hands. Set them on the baking sheet as you form them. (Having a bowl of lukewarm water handy to dampen your hands occasionally will make it easier to shape the sticky meatballs. If you can enlist someone to help, an extra pair of hands will speed up the process. Use a spring-loaded cookie scoop with a 1-tablespoon capacity if you have one.

Make the Sauce:

  • Melt the butter in a Dutch oven or similar-size pot. Stir in the flour with a whisk and cook over medium-high heat, frequently stirring with the whisk, until the roux turns a gentle brown colour, about 5 minutes. Add the stock and cook, stirring continuously, until the sauce thickens, 6 to 8 minutes.
  • Turn off the heat and whisk in the crème fraîche and Worcestershire sauce. Season with salt and pepper and cover the pot.
  • Coat the skillet you used to cook the onions with enough vegetable oil, so there is a good oil film on the bottom. Then, working in batches, fry the meatballs and crowd them in the pan. (Unless you have a particularly huge skillet, you should plan to fry these in three or four batches.)
  • As the meatballs cook, turn them with a spatula or firmly shake the pan to brown evenly on all sides. Add them to the sauce when the first batch of meatballs are browned on all sides and fully cooked. Wipe the skillet clean with a paper towel between batches and cook the rest of the meatballs, adding more oil to the pan, if necessary, and transferring the finished meatballs to the sauce.
  • Gently rewarm the meatballs in the sauce. Spoon the meatballs and some of the sauce over a plate of warm noodles. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the top and serve a spoonful of lingonberry jam alongside.
Keyword Beef, Meatballs, Pork
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