Although the Grandma for whom I’m named was Norwegian, I love to make these Swedish meatballs.
Swedish Meatballs
Meatballs:
Two large leeks (the white portion, grated)
2 teaspoons of butter (I use good butter, preferably Irish butter)
⅔ cup of milk
4 to 5 slices of bread, crusts removed (I use a grain bread when I have it on hand.)
2 eggs
1 pound of ground pork (I prefer North Dakota pork.)
1½ pounds of ground beef (I prefer North Dakota beef.)
2 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of ground cardamom
Sauce:
6 tablespoons of good butter
⅓ cup of flour
1 quart of beef stock
¾ cup of sour cream
4 tablespoons of lingonberry jelly (some substitute with current jelly or grape jelly or even cranberry jelly, but I’m kinda a stickler for lingonberry)
Saute the grated leeks in the melted butter over medium-high heat until softened and translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
In a cake pan, lay out the bread pieces and pour over the milk. Once the milk is absorbed, pulverize the bread in a food processor and pour into a large mixing bowl.
Add the cooled leeks and stir. Add the rest of the meatball ingredients and mix lightly (using your hands or the slowest setting on your mixer) until well-combined.
Use a tablespoon or ice cream scoop to measure out the meatballs. As you form the meatballs, set each one on a sheet pan. You should get about 40 to 50 meatballs. Sometimes I make the meatballs ahead of time and let them rest in the fridge overnight. Sometimes I freeze some of the meatballs for later use.
Heat 6 tablespoons of butter for the sauce in a large saute pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, reduce the heat to medium and add some of the meatballs. Do not crowd the pan. Work in batches, browning them slowly on all sides. Be gentle when you turn them over, so they don’t break apart. Do not cook the meatballs all the way through, only brown them at this stage. Once browned, use a slotted spoon to remove them from the pan, setting them aside so you can make the sauce with the remaining butter. Sometimes I freeze some of the browned meatballs for later use if I have made a batch that is larger than I plan to serve at any one time.
Start the sauce. Important: Check the pan butter to see if it has burned. If the butter tastes burnt, discard the butter and replace it with 6 fresh tablespoons. Heat the pan butter on medium until the foam subsides. Slowly whisk in the flour. Stirring often, let the flour cook until it is the color of coffee-with-cream, the classic roux.
As the roux is cooking, heat the beef stock in another pot as it is important that the stock be hot when added to the roux. When the roux is the color of coffee-with-cream, slowly add the hot beef stock a little at a time. Everything will sputter at first, and the sauce will seize up and solidify. Keep stirring and adding stock slowly, and it will loosen up and become silky.
Add the meatballs to the sauce and turn the heat down to low. Sometimes I put the meatballs in the oven. Cover the pot and cook on low heat for 10 minutes or so.
To finish, move the meatballs to a dish. To the sauce, add sour cream and the lingonberry jelly and stir to combine well.
Serve the meatballs either with combined with the sauce or with the sauce on the side. Some people just have to have gravy with their meat and some people do not like gravy with their meat.
I like the meatballs with mashed potatoes, rice or even pasta. I prefer to serve with a green vegetable.
To me, the cardamon and lingonberry jelly are what makes these Swedish meatballs, rather than ordinary meatballs. Years ago, I ate Swedish meatballs at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. If you haven’t visited there, I — a museum nerd of the first order — highly recommend a visit.
One last personal note: When I was a little girl, living in Okinawa, I can remember singing the little song “On Top of Old Spaghetti, All Covered with Meatballs” and no doubt driving my parents crazy.
