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wedish meatballs and gravy with mashed potatoes
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Swedish Meatballs Recipe

Course Beef
Cuisine swedish
Author The Homesteading Hippy

Ingredients

  Meatballs

  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1 lb. pork
  • 1/4 cup oatmeal
  • ½ teaspoon pepper or
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon allspice or mixed spice
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 onion large, chopped fine
  • ½ stick of butter 2 ounces or 57 grams for frying
  • 1 tablespoon coconut or sunflower oil
  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 slices bread medium cut, crusts removed, soaked in ½ a cup of milk
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg ground
  • 1 tablespoon parsley chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic crushed

Sauce

  • ½ stick butter 2 ounces or 57 grams
  • 5 tablespoons flour
  • 2 ½ cups milk

Instructions

  • Place chopped onion in a large bowl, and add the bread, oats or panko crumbs, and milk. Allow to stand for a couple of minutes so the onion flavor is absorbed into the mix.
    chopped onion and bread and milk with spices and eggs ready to go into the mix
  • Start by mixing all the ingredients listed for the meatballs together in a large bowl until combined.
    Ground beef on the left and ground pork on the right
  • Using your hands or an ice cream scoop form the meat mixture into balls approximately 1 ½ inch in diameter.
  • Heat a skillet on medium high and melt the ½ stick of butter with a tablespoon of coconut oil – the coconut oil helps prevent the butter browning too quickly.
    ground meat with everything added including the parsley
  • Add in the meatballs a few at a time and brown, turning so they are evenly browned and cooked through – there should be no pink when you cut one open. I did these in an electric fry pan in two batches of 12. I put the lid on once they were browned on the outside to allow them to cook through. You can do the same with a skillet.
    neat rows of meatballs in the electric frypan
  • Once cooked through, remove the meatballs with a slotted spoon, and leave in a covered dish to keep warm while you brown the next batch.
  • After they are all done and removed from the pan, you are going to start making your sauce. Add the other ½ stick of butter to the pan and allow to melt, then tip in the flour, and stir quickly, incorporating the meaty bits and pan juices into the mix, which will form the basis of the roux.
  • Now gradually, stirring all the time add the milk, ensuring the mix does not become lumpy – you have to add the milk a little at a time to get the dough ball to become gradually more and more creamy until the sauce is formed.
    butter and flour ready to create the sauce using the pan drippings
  • Allow to cook, stirring so it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan, until it is bubbly – this should take another 3 minutes.
    sauce looking golden
  • Stir in the cream and allow to heat through for a minute or two.
  • Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.
  • When you plate the meatballs add the mashed potato first, then arrange the meatballs – three per person should be adequate as these are fairly big, and finally add the creamy gravy.
    adding the cream to the sauce

Notes

Instead of the two slices of bread, you can use 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal or ½ cup of Panko breadcrumbs mixed into the milk.
To serve, any combination of two or three of the following can accompany the meal:
  • Thin slices of roasted red pepper
  • A handful of finely sliced red cabbage
  • 2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley
  • Fluffy mashed potato
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Green beans
  • Glazed carrots
  • Garden peas
  • Steamed broccoli
  • Pureed parsnips
  • Lingonberry sauce
  • Cranberry sauce