Swedish Meatball Hot Dish Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
• Tear the bread into pieces and place in a small mixing bowl along with the milk. Set aside.
• In a 12-inch straight sided saute pan over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sweat until the onions are soft. Remove from the heat and set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the bread and milk mixture, ground chuck, pork, egg yolks, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, black pepper, allspice, nutmeg, and onions. Beat on medium speed for 1 to 2 minutes.
• Using a scale, weigh meatballs into 1-ounce portions and place on a sheet pan. Using your hands, shape the meatballs into rounds.
• Heat the remaining butter in the saute pan over medium-low heat, or in an electric skillet set to 250 degrees F. Add the meatballs and saute until golden brown on all sides, about 7 to 10 minutes. Remove the meatballs to an ovenproof dish using a slotted spoon and place in the warmed oven.
• Once all of the meatballs are cooked, decrease the heat to low and add the flour to the pan or skillet. Whisk until lightly browned, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Gradually add the beef stock and whisk until sauce begins to thicken. Add the cream and continue to cook until the gravy reaches the desired consistency. Remove the meatballs from the oven, cover with the gravy and serve.

Steps:

• Melt butter in a skillet.
• Saute onions in the butter until golden.
• Soak the bread crumbs in the milk.
• To the bread mixture, add the meats, egg, onion, allspice, salt, and pepper. Mix until a smooth texture is achieved.
• Chill mix for an hour or so, to firm it up.
• Form mix into meatballs, using 1-2 tablespoons of meat per ball. (these should be smaller than a golf ball). If you are making these on a warm day, you might want to chill the formed balls again, so that you don't get flat sides when you fry them.
• Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.
• Melt a small amount of butter (traditional) or oil in the pan.
• Add enough meatballs to fill the pan very loosely.
• Shake the pan as you fry the balls, to keep the round shape as they cook. Continue to cook until they are evenly brown on all sides.
• Remove each batch to a warm platter in the oven, as you fry the rest.
• If you wish to make the gravy, deglaze the pan with a little water after each batch, and reserve the resulting drippings in a bowl.
• For the gravy:.
• When all of the meatballs have been fried, mix the flour and cream (or milk), and add to the reserved pan drippings in the skillet.
• Simmer for 10 minutes.
• If the mixture is too thick, add a bit of cream (or milk) to thin, then taste and season with salt and/or pepper as needed.
• Pour gravy over warm meatballs and serve with boiled potatoes and lingonberry sauce.

Steps:

• In a heavy skillet over medium-high heat, melt 1 Tbs butter.
• Add onions and saute, stirring often until soft, about 1-2 minutes.
• Remove from heat and set aside.
• In bowl of electric mixer combine bread crumbs and water; let stand until soft; about 1-2 minutes.
• Add reserved onions along with beef, pork, egg yolks, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and allspice.
• Beat on low speed until smooth.
• Turn mixer to high and beat until mixture is light in color and fluffy; about 10 minutes.
• Shape into 1-inch balls.
• In large skillet over medium heat, melt remaining 4 Tbs butter.
• Cook meatballs in batches of about 15 at a time until brown on all sides.
• Remove with slotted spoon and drain briefly on paper towel before removing to a warmed serving platter
• Cover to keep warm.
• When all meatballs are cooked, reduced heat to low and add flour to skillet.
• Cook, stirring until lightly browned.
• Slowly add beef stock
• Cook, whisking until gravy is thick and smooth.
• Strain if desired.
• Pour gravy over meatballs and serve hot.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350ºF (175ºC). Lightly grease a 9- x 13-inch baking dish.
• In a large bowl, combine ground beef, ground pork, chopped onion, bread crumbs, egg, and milk. Season with parsley, Worcestershire sauce, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Mix well with your hands. Shape into walnut-size balls, and place on baking dish.
• Bake for 30 minutes in preheated oven. Turn frequently so they brown evenly on all sides.
• TO MAKE THE SAUCE:.
• In a saucepan, combine oil, flour, paprika, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Cook over medium heat until sizzling. Stir in hot water and sour cream until smooth and heated through.
• When meatballs have cooked 30 minutes, pour sauce over the top, and return to the oven for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• FOOTNOTES:.
• These meatballs are great alone, but are also delicious poured over egg noodles.

Steps:

• Combine the beaten egg, milk, and breadcrumbs; let stand for 5 minutes.
• In a small frying pan over medium heat, saute the chopped onions in 1 tablespoon of butter until lightly golden in color.
• In a large bowl, combine the breadcrumb mixture, the sauteed onions, the ground beef and pork, salt, pepper, nutmeg and allspice. Mix well with hands until smooth. Shape into about 36 meatballs, each about 1-inch in diameter.
• In a very large skillet, over medium heat, brown the meatballs in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter (brown half the meatballs at a time, if necessary, combining them all in the pan at the end.) Pour off any excess fat. Sprinkle the meatballs with the flour and shake the skillet. Add the 1 cup of hot water, stirring gently to loosen any browned bits and blend well. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 35 to 40 minutes, stirring gently occasionally. Add the half & half and heat thoroughly.
• Serve the hot meatballs and gravy as an appetizer, or, as a main dish over egg noodles or with mashed potatoes, if desired.

Steps:

• First and before you get the meat out of the fridge, get everything ready (you don't want ground meat out of the fridge for longer than necessary).
• Start with the onion. Chop it very finely, season it lightly with salt, and gently cook it on low heat in a non stick skillet with a Tbsp of oil and 1/2 a Tbsp of butter until just golden. (Don't let it burn, it will turn bitter !) Let it cool, and reserve.
• Make the breadcrumbs, and soak them in 1/4 of a cup of cream. Start adding the cream slowly, you don't want it dripping wet, just soaked, and the quantity of cream to add might depend on how moist your bread already is. Reserve.
• Beat and season the egg, reserve.
• Once this is done, get the ground meats out of the fridge and combine them (beef and pork) with the soaked bread, the beaten egg, the cooked and cooled onion, the nutmeg, and the allspice. Incorporate everything well, and salt and pepper to taste. Then cover and put back in the fridge for about half an hour. Don't overmix or the meatballs will be tough.
• After half an hour, take your meat mixture out of the fridge and start to shape your meatballs (I make mine bite size, they cook faster and its easier to eat), and fry them until golden brown in a cast iron casserole (cast iron because it keeps the heat very well) in the rest of the canola oil with 2 Tbsp of butter for the taste. Once golden brown on all sides, Put them on paper towels in a tray and reserve.
• In the same cast iron casserole, throw out most of the fat, and then saute the mushrooms on medium heat in what's left. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Once the mushrooms are cooked, deglaze the skillet with 1 cup of beef stock and scrape all the brown bits from the bottom of the casserole. Be careful with the salt at this stage, because the beef broth is already salted. You can always adjust the salt later.
• Turn the heat to low and then slowly add the can of Campbell's mushroom soup, and the heavy cream (1 cup).
• Once the mushroom sauce is nice and bubbly, add the meatballs back in, and let reduce on low for 30 to 40 minutes, until the sauce has reduced a third to a half (depending on how thick you want the sauce to be), and the meatballs are cooked through and the flavors have all combined.
• Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve on top of fresh mash potatoes, or buttered noodles.
• I have added pictures of several stages of the dish to help you out.
• NOTE : leftovers freeze beautifully. It's also a great dish to prepare a day ahead of time, because its even better reheated the next day. Just make sure you don't reduce the sauce too much when you cook it if you know you are going to serve it the next day, the sauce will finish to reduce as you reheat it (on low).