recipe: swedish meatballs

these have also been on my "must make them" list for a while now, but there has been zero time for meataballa making the past few weeks. super bowl seemed like a good opp to try them since all i was doing all day was playing in the kitchen and eating like a hoss. most of the recipes i searched for called for using lingonberrries or lindonberry jam... WTF is a lingonberry? sounds like something you'd hear about in a smurf barter, in a bowl of Captain Crunch on the Deep Space 9, or picked by gummy bears (the cartoon, not the confection) in a mythical Swedish forest. anywho... the recipe on Food Network that for Emiril's Swedish Meatballs was both lingonberry-free and well-reviewed, so it sounded like a winner to me. i made it exactly as written (just minor tweaks), as follows:

ingredients list:
- 1 & 1/2 cups red onion, finely diced & divided
- 4 & 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 & 1/3 lbs ground meatloaf mix (pork, chicken & veal) 
- 1 & 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper, plus extra for sprinkling
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1 cup plain dried bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 cup heavy cream, divided
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 4 tbsp flour
- 3 & 1/2 cups lo-so beef stock
- 1/4 cup red currant jelly (i also couldn't find this... i used cranberry sauce)
- white pepper
- cornstarch, if needed

to make: in a medium skillet over medium-high heat, saute 1 cup of the onion in 1.5 tbsp of the butter until soft & slightly golden. set aside to cool, then add the onion to a medium bowl with the meat, 1 & 1/2 tsp of the salt, 1/2 tsp of the pepper, allspice & nutmeg.

in a separate bowl, combine the breadcrumbs with the milk and 1/4 cup of the cream, and allow to sit about 5 minutes until the bread crumbs are soft. add bread crumb mixture and the beaten egg into the meat mixture, and mix until completely combined.

roll mixture into small meatballs, about 1 & 1/2 inches wide. in a large skillet*, heat 1/2 tbsp of the butter. add as many meatballs will fit into the pan (with space for breathing room in between), and cook until browned on all sides, turning frequently, for about 6-8 minutes. use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked meatballs to a slow cooker, and repeat process with next batch of uncooked meatballs (adding butter to the pan in between batches, if needed).

when meatballs are done, add remaining 1 & 1/2 tbsp butter and 1/2 cup onion to the skillet, and cook until the onion is soft. add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. whisk in the beef broth little by little and cook until the sauce has thickened a little, about 5 minutes. transfer sauce to the slow cooker and bring temperature to high. add in the remaining 1/4 tsp salt, a pinch of black pepper, a pinch of white pepper, onion powder, the remaining heavy cream, and the cranberry sauce, stirring well. cook on high for about 2 hours, then reduce heat to low and cook for an additional hour (if the sauce starts out thin, add a little cornstarch slurry each hour until the thickness builds. i had to do this a few times).

serve alone as an app, or over buttered egg noodles as a meal.

* our nonstick skillet bit the dust, and our large skillet is somehow "missing". so i cooked these in a wok. they all rolled into the middle, so i had to cook these in like 37 batches. this recipe took me foreeever.

***

verdict: actually LOVED these. i've had a few "meh" recipes i've made lately, but these i was actually very happily surprised with. superbowl sunday i was kinda too full to really enjoy them, but for leftovers they were great. usually i can eat something ONCE for leftovers, and then i'm done, as-is  kyle, so we either just let things sit in the fridge until i'm guilted into eating it, or i just throw it out. these i think i ate about 4 times this week, and kyle 2. (i had made a double batch of the recipe above so we had waaay too many). they were a total mouth party every time. watch out Ikea. 9 *********.