Swedish meatballs with egg noodles here! I was so excited when Jim said he’d never had them before because he’s kind of a basic eater and GUESS WHAT. HE LIKED THEM. Granted, for the rest of us food snobs, Swedish meatballs are hardly exotic, but you know that exciting feeling when you introduce someone to something new and they like it?! I’m on cloud nine right now! He calls this dish “Mr. Meatball.”
These are traditionally served with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce, but egg noodles work with beef stroganoff, so I figured this was close enough. And I checked Cub for lingonberry sauce–$8! Whoa. So I had some leftover homemade raspberry jam and liked it paired with this dish instead!
Swedish Meatballs Recipe by Baker’s Theory
Ingredients
For the meatballs
2 slices of white bread, crusts trimmed
1/2 cup whole milk or heavy cream
1 1/3 lbs ground beef (fat content of your choice)
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 scant tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
1 cup warm water
Vegetable oil for pan
For the sauce
3 tbsp salted butter
1/2 medium onion, sliced
4 oz portobello mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
Salt and pepper as needed
1/2 cup grated Parmesan for topping
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350.
Soak bread in milk or cream in a large bowl for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, add ground beef, egg, salt, pepper, and brown sugar, mixing by hand. Slowly pour in water in thirds. Meat will absorb the water and you should still be able to form balls.
Roll 1 1/2″ wide balls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Should make about 24-30 balls.
Heat a heavy bottomed non-stick pot or pan (bearing in mind you will make the sauce in it) with a thin layer of vegetable oil. When oil is shimmering, add about 1/3 of the meatball batch, rotating on the sides to get a golden brown crust. Transfer back to the cookie sheet. Finish frying the rest of the batch, transferring back to the cookie sheet once braised.
Place the sheet in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until no longer pink in the center.
For the sauce, use the same pot meatballs were braised in. Melt butter and add onion, stirring occasionally until onions are browned. Add mushrooms halfway through browning onions so they turn golden. Toss flour over the onions and mushrooms, stirring quickly to coat them in flour without causing them to burn. Quickly add heavy cream, sour cream, and milk, stirring vigorously with a whisk. (You may also add 1 cup of chicken or beef broth if you’d like your sauce to be thinner.) Reduce heat to low to avoid boiling the dairy. Add in Worchestershire sauce and stir to incorporate. Add salt and pepper as desired. Add meatballs back into sauce. Top with grated Parmesan.
Serve over 1 lb cooked egg noodles or mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce or raspberry jam!
*To make raspberry jam, mash 12 oz fresh (and rinsed) raspberries with the juice of 1 lemon plus its zest and 2 cups of white sugar in a medium-sized, heavy bottomed sauce pan. Bring to a boil for a full minute without stirring. Then remove from heat and strain the seeds using a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth, capturing the gelatinous jam and discarding the seeds. Transfer to a hot glass jar (preheat the jar with boiling water, then dump out the water before putting in jam) and refrigerate for 3-4 hours before using.
You can use the same recipe to make strawberry or cranberry jam. You can also use orange instead of lemon–both are high in pectin and will cause natural gelling.
I showed this picture to Ray and his jaw dropped! did I mention he loves swedish meatballs? I will need to try this recipe and let you know how it turns out.