Swedish pork meatballs

Classic country recipes: the essential cookbook, 256pp.
by R&R Test Kitchen
R&R Publications, North Carlton, Victoria, Australia, 2008
Cooking on page 32

I have two slow cookers and hardly ever use them, so I bought this to give myself a little kick along. While not devoted entirely to slow-cooked meals, the cookbook opens with a chapter focusing on just that. I especially appreciated the cooking-time conversion chart. I’ve always wondered how oven and stovetop times compare to slow cookers set on low or high. Now I have a handy reference.

Other chapters cover baked pies and pastries, dishes featuring garlic and rice-based dishes.

We’ve had a cool snap in Australia recently, so I made recipes on page 32 and page 38 (which is shown on the book’s cover). I also had three willing helpers staying with us—exchange students from Finland, Norway and Denmark. The page-32 choice seemed oh-so appropriate.

Swedish pork meatballs

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups white breadcrumbs
1 cup buttermilk
500g (1 lb) lean pork mince
250g (8 ounces) lean beef mince
2 eggs
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon dill seeds
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
60g (2 ounces) butter
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 dry white wine
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup cream
1/4 cup fresh parsley

Method
Soak breadcrumbs in buttermilk for 5 minutes. Add meats, eggs, onion, salt, dill seeds, allspice and nutmeg. Mix well, cover and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Shape tablespoons of mixture into balls.

Heat butter in a frying pan and cook meatballs until lightly browned.

Place meatballs into the slow cooker as they are browned. Add stock, wine and pepper. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours.

Approximately 20 minutes before serving turn the heat to high and add cream. Serve meatballs garnished with parsley and accompanied by crusty bread. Serves 6.

How it played out
It’s been ages since I made a recipe that called for dill seeds, but I have a hefty supply so it was nice to make use of them. Also good to use some of my homemade breadcrumbs. The meat mixture came together easily—I squished it by hand—and then it sat in the fridge for way longer than 30 minutes. In fact, we went sightseeing, so dinner plans were rearranged and this stayed in the fridge overnight. That did it no harm.

The next day, the girls made the meatballs in no time (they ended up with 43). How nice to have three to do a job that I otherwise would have done by myself.  I followed everything else and, while the meatballs cooked, we did more exploring.

Served with mashed potatoes and mixed steamed beans. Completely forgot to sprinkle over the parsley, which annoyed me because I’d made a special trip to get some.

Verdict
We may not have had a Swede with us, but these meatballs were a definite hit with everyone. They were so good that two days later I got out the slow cooker and cookbook again, and made the lamb shanks recipe on page 38. This cookbook is a keeper.

Travel
We visited Finland and Sweden last year (as well as several neighbouring countries). We had many wonderful meals and fantastic sightseeing experiences. A favourite was the Vasa Museum in Stockholm to see the ship that was resurfaced after 300 years. It is the most visited museum in all of Scandinavia.

Photo by breezermom

Olga, Tomine and Mathilde get their hands dirty making meatballs