Swedish Meatballs

I dont know if I could call the way I served meatballs tonight a Swedish classic but I'm sure that it's one of the most common ways to serve meatballs out there in the little red cabins of Sweden (so maybe it is a classic after all)...?  Anyway, making meatballls is just about as easy as buying them ready.  Really!  There are many side dishes to the classic meatball, tonight I did a version I like to call "Dagis" which means daycare in Sweden.  This is stewed maccaroni and peas and carrots.  Can't really go wrong with the kids, if you have kids.  You can also serve them with mashed potatos, gravy, ligonberries and pickled cuccumbers if you want to go for the classic "Swedish Meatballs" dish.

Meatballs

500g ground beef

1  onion finely diced 

1 egg

2 dl heavy cream 

2 tablespoon breadcrums

1 dl milk

salt & pepper

Blend trhe breadcrumbs with the milk then add everything else  and mix it all together.  Wet your hands and make meatballs by searing them in a pan with butter until they are ready, appx 10 minutes. 

Stewed Maccaroni

1 liter of milk 

6dl macaronies 

pinch of nutmeg (muskotnöt) 

salt & pepper

Bring the milk to a boil put in the salt and pepper and the maccaroni, let it simmer for appx 15 minutes, stirring frequently so it doesn't stick grind in some nutmeg.  I served this with ketchup that I made some carrots and peas.

Fried Herring

Here comes another Swedish classic"stekt strömming"(fried herring).  Herring is  one of the fishes that you still can buy without spending a fortune.  In Sweden we eat herring on our holidays like midsummer, easter and christmas although on these occasions it is usually pickled.  This recipe is a good everyday dinner.  In the western part of Sweden they eat lingonberries (of course ) to this dish so try that if you like,  I don't do this.  I get my fair share of lingonberries with other dishes.  Herring is very rich in omega 3 so that's a good reason to try this.  In this recipe I use a cider vinegar mustard which I think is very good but use what ever mustard you prefer.

700g of herring 

1 bunch of dill

3 tbs  mustard (cider vinegar flavored)

2 egg yolks

2dl bread crumbs

2dl whole grain flour

salt  & pepper

Start by putting the egg yolks, mustard and dill in a bowl, mix it togehter. Then mix the flour and the bread crumbs and put them out on craftpaper (baking paper), place the herring with the skin side down in the flour mix then put on the mustard mix and then put another herring on top of the first herring filet then put the flour mix on top as well.   Sear it on medium heat in a pan until golden brown.  I serve this with mashed potatos and browned butter.

The mashed potatoes I do like this: boil potatoss, warm up some milk and butter, when the potatos are done drain the water and then smash them then beat them together with the warm milk and butter.  Season with salt and pepper.

The browened butter: put butter in a pan and melt until golden brown be careful you don't want it to get burned it should look like the picture below.  When it starts to smell nutty it is ready.  Take it off the stove and strain it.

Potato Pancake (Raggmunk)

This is a Swedish classic, and as you might know by now there are three ingredients which keep turning up in any sentence that has the words "Swedish" and "classic", that is potatos, pork (often thick cuts similar to Canadian bacon) and lingonberries.

Raggmunk is one of those classics that modern Swedes don't eat that often anymore but when they see it on a menu... ahhh raggmunk! Trust me I know, we have it on the menu at my work and I make quite a few everyday. It's also very kid friendly as it's almost like eating pancakes for dinner...

my daughter says its her favorite dish.

Raggmunk

8-10 potatos

1 yellow onion

4 eggs

5 dl flour

1 liter milk

salt & pepper

Start by doing the pancake batter mix the eggs with 2 dl of the milk then whisk in half of the flour then add the rest of the milk and the flour. Mix it well so you don't have any lumps in it then shredd the potatos and the onion and place that into the batter. Add salt and pepper. Fry it on medium heat in butter and oil until golden brown.  Serve it with canadian bacon or regular bacon and lingonberries (my lingonberry recipe is found HERE)

Plum Stuffed Roast Pork Loin

This is a Swedish classic. Roasted pork loin stuffed with plums and served with pickeled cuccumbers, apple sauce and gravy. I serve mine with a root veggie hash, you can serve it with mashed potatos or whatever you like... I  like my roast pork a bit pink so I roast it until it is 60C in the middle. The health administration (Livsmedelsverket) suggests that you cook pork until it is at least 70C so it's your call. If you get a good pork then I don't think there is much reason to worry. Again, the lower the temperature the longer it roasts and the better it tastes. Today I put the roast in the oven at 100C and then went ice skating with the kids and let it just do it's thing.

I recommend that you start by preparing the cuccumber. Pickled items need to sit for hours to get the right flavor and they should also be served cold so get this out of the way first thing. The meranade is called 123 this can be applied to anything you pickle... beets, herring, etc. 123: one part destilled vinager (ättiksprit), 2 parts sugar and three parts water. Bring to a boil, let it cool then pour in the cuccumbers and some chopped parsley. Place in fridge.

When it comes to the meat, start by cutting in small pockets into the meat so that it can be stuffed with plums.  I'd say anywhere from 6-8 plums is good.  Then you tie up the meat.  Hard to explain how this is done but I found a good video here!  Chop up two carrots, two yellow onions, three garlic gloves, one apple.  Sear the meat in a hot pan on all sides.  Let the vegetables sear with the meat.  Add 3 bayleafs and 4 dl water or even better chicken stock if you have it..  Then place evything in the oven.  I roasted mine at 100C for 3.5 hours.  When it is done take it out and wrap it in tin foil so it can rest for about 15 minutes (this gives the meat a chance to self absorb so that it doesn't loose all the juices when slicing).

The gravy is made from the vegetables and the juice that the meat was roasted with so put all of those items in a pan, add 3dl heavy cream, 1 tbsp blackcurrant gele, salt and pepper.  Cook on stovetop and let it reduce a bit.    You can find the recipe for the apple sauce here! 

Pizza a la Tony

For those of you who do not live in Sweden, it may seem strange but pizza is as Swedish as it gets.  I saw in a documentary on Swedish food culture that pizza was brought over during the mid 1970's.  Now pizza is common place in pretty much every city and town.  Smaller cities that don't have sushi have pizza, cities that don't have Mexican or Thai food have pizza.  Pizza has become so big in Sweden that it is everywhere, almost to the point where it is EVERYWHERE.  For example in our little neighborhood we have four pizzarias with a 3 to 5 minute walk from each other (unfortunately none of them are great).  Do not get me wrong, the are a lot of great pizzarias in Stockholm just not in my neighborhood.

Pizza is actually easy to make.  It's a fun thing to do with the kids if you have the time and patience.    Another great thing about making your own is that you can put toppings on that maybe your local pizza joint doesn't carry.

To start make the dough.  You can even make the dough the night before to save time.

DOUGH

50g yeast

5 dl water

1 dl olive oil

12 dl flour

2 tblsp salt

In a food processor blend the yeast with room temperature water and olive oil.  Let it work for 1 or 2 minutes.  Add half the flour, let it work for 2 minutes.  Add salt and the rest of the flour.  Let it work for 15 minutes.  Then place a towel over the dough and let it rise, should take about 30 minutes.  Then take out the dough and make tennis size balls.  Place a wet towel over the dough/balls and let it rise for another 30 minutes.

While the yeast is doing it's thing make the tomato sauce.

TOMATO SAUCE

1 yellow onion

4 slices of red chili

3 garlic gloves

2 tblsp olive oil

1 bunch oregeno

1 tblsp sugar

2 cans whole tomato

salt / pepper

Sear the onion, chili, garlic and oregeno in olive oil.  Pour in the tomatos, let it cook for 15-20 minutes.  Season with salt, pepper and suger.  Mix it with hand mixer or blender.  Let it cool down.  

my kids made their own pizza tonight

Shape the dough into small pizzas.  Put on a warm baking tray.  Pour on sauce and garnish with your topping, cheese etc.  Today we used chedder and mozzarella,  olives, prociutto and mushrooms on one pizza and on the other goat cheese, mushrooms, figs and walnuts.  If using dried meats like prociutto I recommend placing it on the pizza when it is done same with ruccula, spinach and basil.

Wallenbergare

Wallenbergare is classic Swedish dish.  It is always served with mashed potatoes, melted butter, peas and ligonberries.  

For 5-6 people:

500g ground veal

8 dl heavy cream

2 eggs

bread crumbs (finely ground)

salt & pepper

50g butter (for searing)

                                                                    

Start with the ground veal in a bowl, add eggs, slowly stir adding heavy cream while stirring.  Add salt and pepper.  Let rest in fridge approximately 40 minutes.  Wet your hands (which is always good to do when working with ground meats), make patties to the size of you liking.    Turn over patties in bread crumbs then pan sear on low heat in butter until golden brown on each side.  Place patties in oven at 165C' for approximately 10 minutes.  The are best served medium.

Serve with melted butter and mashed potatoes and lingonberries.  I will give instructions for lingonberries here.