julköttbullar (Swedish meat balls)
Why I Love This Recipe
No pictures today but y'all ought to be able to imagine meatballs in your head.
Ingredients You'll Need
1 pound ground beef (.45 kg)
1 pound ground pork (.45 kg)
1 small onion (about 1/4 cup grated onion), grated or whirled around in the food processor
1 large egg, beaten
about 1/2 cup of heavy cream (1 dL)
2 pieces bread whirled around in the food processor (about 1 cup/2 dL fresh bread crumbs)
salt and pepper
1/8 teaspoon, each, cinnamon, ground ginger and ground cardamon (a heavy pinch)
Directions
Whirl the bread up first and dump it in the bowl, then whirl the onion. In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, cream, onion, egg, salt and pepper and the cinnamon, ginger and cardamon. The amount of flavor that the small amount of spices give the meatballs is amazing.
Put the pork and beef in the food processor with the blade attachment. Add the bread crumb mixture and whirl around until well mixed (and looks gross). (edit: allow the meat mixture to rest in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 an hour before forming balls)
You can fry or bake your meatballs. I used the mini-muffin pan method. Roll meatballs lightly in your hands - roughly a large walnut size. Place one in each mini-muffin cup. You will have leftovers since I can't ever get the amount right. Do what I'm going to do - make meatballs and freeze them to cook another time - or bake a second batch. (I got 42 balls out of it)
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 25-30 minutes, until browned on top.
Serve with lingonberry jam (like you will ever find that) or cranberry sauce. Interestingly, none of the "real" Swedish meatball recipes I found had them swimming in that brown sour cream sauce.
