Swedish Meatballs

The other night I made a new recipe for my little family and it was simply delicious.  I'm not the huge fan of meatballs as there is a lot of work rolling them into balls and when they are on your dinner plate you just cut them up anyway.  The recipe looked great and I need to add some new recipes to my weekly menu plan so I bought the ingredients and some of the spices sounded a bit weird to me to have in meat but I made the recipe exactly as it was in the book and it was a 10 out of 10 for this family.  We will be making this again real soon, probably next week....there were lots of sounds from everyone eating it and the sauce was so nice there was nothing left on the plate when the dishes went to the sink.  If you are bored with your dinners give this one a try.  I mixed up the meatball mixture at lunch time as there's chopping and cooking and making balls which probably took me about 30 minutes.  Once they were made I popped them into the fridge on a tray lined with baking paper (parchment paper) so they were ready to make the recipe that evening.  I had to laugh as James loved the recipe but didn't like the peas.  Sienna eats corn and James eats peas however he complained about the peas however did not notice all the baby spinach in the dish which he happily ate. Aaahhh I make him eat his peas because aside from potato this is the only vegetable he eats and his salad range is lettuce whereas Sienna and I pretty much eat any salad or vegetable except she is not a fan of pumpkin.

SWEDISH MEATBALLS (MAKES 24 LARGE MEATBALLS) SERVES 4 PEOPLE

INGREDIENTS

• 2 x 30gms slices white bread, crusts removed, torn
• 1/4 cup (60ml) skim milk
• 1 small brown onion, finely chopped
• 400gms extra lean pork and veal mince
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• One and a half tablespoons plain flour
• One and a half cups (375ml) beef stock
• 1/2 Cup (125ml) light thickened cooking cream
• 2 cups (60gms) of baby spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup (60gms) frozen peas, (thawed)
• 4 fresh dill sprigs

METHOD

1. Place bread in a shallow bowl. Pour over milk and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, lightly spray a small non-stick frying pan with oil and onion and cook, stirring for 5 minutes or until softened.  Transfer to a large bowl.
3. Add mince, egg, allspice, nutmeg and soaked bread to onion. Season with salt and pepper.  Mix well to combine.  Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls.  NOTE:  I made 24 balls and placed them on a tray with baking paper in the fridge until I needed to cook them.
4. Heat oil in a deep non-stick frying pan over medium heat.  Cook meatballs, turning gently, for 5 minutes until browned.  Transfer to a plate.  Add flour to pan and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.  Gradually add stock and cream, stirring constantly, and cook until smooth and combined.
5. Return meatballs to pan and bring to the boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.  Add spinach and peas and cook for 1 minute or until heated through.  Serve with dill.

I served my meatballs with fettuccine however you could have mashed potato or rice which would be equally nice.