Thursday, January 20, 2022

Swedish meatballs @LucyBurdette






LUCY BURDETTE: Having posted on this blog since 2012, I can tell you it’s not always simple to think up and tweak new recipes. Sometimes I have no idea where the ideas came from, and that is the case with today’s Swedish meatballs. I’ve never shopped in IKEA, so I don’t know what their meatballs taste like, but John and I agreed that these were pretty tasty. I suppose you could serve them as an appetizer with toothpicks, but I was craving the egg noodles I'd ordered from Eataly a while back, so that's what we had.





Ingredients for the meatballs


One medium onion, peeled and chopped

1 pound ground beef

One large egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil


Ingredients for the gravy


1 1/4 cups beef broth

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce


Noodles for serving


To make the meatballs, combine the breadcrumbs, the onion, the beef, the egg, and the salt, pepper, allspice and nutmeg. Mix those ingredients well, and form into small balls, no larger than a golf ball. Sauté the meatballs in melted butter until brown, setting aside those that are finished on a plate lined with paper towels. (You will want to cook them pretty well because they won't have a lot of time in the sauce.)







Wipe out the frying pan and melt a tablespoon or two of butter. Stir in the flour and let that cook a few minutes, then gradually whisk in the beef broth until smooth and beginning to thicken. Whisk in the mustard and Worcestershire sauce, and add the sour cream last. 




Add the meatballs back into the sauce and serve over egg noodles. Or as an hors d'oeuvres, serve with toothpicks and napkins.


(I think a green vegetable would have made for a better balance, but corn is what I had on hand.)




In addition to Lucy's Key West food critic mysteries, she's written a thriller called Unsafe Haven! 


About Unsafe Haven
A chance meeting on the New York subway leads to the destinies of two very different women becoming intertwined with terrifying consequences in this nerve-jangling thriller.


Sixteen-year-old Addison is on the run. She's leaving her life on New York's streets behind for a new one with Rafe, armed with just his phone number on a scrap of paper. She's taking the subway to meet him in New Jersey. He'll take care of her. Or so she thinks . . .


Elizabeth Brown's world has fallen apart and she's thinking about her newly ex-fiancé. Until she locks eyes with a teenage girl while waiting for the train doors to open, and a bundle is thrust into her arms as she leaves the subway. A baby, wrapped in a dirty coat.


Elizabeth phones the number she finds in the coat pocket. Then wishes she hadn't. Someone wants Addison and the baby. And they'll do whatever it takes to get them . . .


In a major departure from her lighthearted Key West mysteries, Burdette invites readers into the world of a chilling thriller. (Unsafe Haven is) a page-turner highlighting the problem of exploited runaways.

—Kirkus Reviews

If you'd like a nibble before you buy, read the first chapter here. And if you'd like to read more about the genesis of the book, read this post from Jungle Red Writers.


Ways to buy your copy of UNSAFE HAVEN:


Book depository 


Indiebound 


Barnes and Noble 


Amazon 


Severn House 


And if this is not in your budget (which I totally get,) you can invite your local library to order a copy!

7 comments:

  1. Sounds yummy to be! Thanks for the recipe.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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  2. Love Swedish meatballs. Yours look great - thanks!

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  3. Yum, corn with Swedish meatballs brings back memories! Guess what's for dinner?!

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  4. Sounds delicious.
    A quick sprinkling of parsley on the corn would make it pop visually.

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  5. I want them to jump into my mouth right now!

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  6. My husband just saw the picture of the finished dish & said "I could go for something like that" so this is a keeper! Thanks for sharing the reipe.

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  7. The recipe for the Swedish Meatballs sounds delicious. Want to try it soon. conney.parkhurst@gmail.com

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