Swedish Meatballs #Recipe @PegCochran & #Giveaway

 

On Sunday night, when we tend to have "comfort" food for dinner, I decided that Swedish meatballs would be just the ticket.  I went scrolling around the web and found this recipe on Little Spice Jar's blog.  They're called "Seriously Amazing Swedish Meatballs" and hubby declared them fantastic.  I found lots of variations on the Swedish meatball theme--some with sour cream, some without.  Some also had nutmeg while others didn't. The meatballs I've enjoyed the most have usually had sour cream and nutmeg in the sauce so I decided to try this recipe.

Ingredients:
1 small chopped onion
5 TBL butter
2 slice bread torn into small bits
3 TBL milk
1 1/4 lbs. ground beef (lean)
1 large egg
1 tsp salt & 1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp each: allspice and garlic powder
1 TBL each: oil and worcestershire sauce
2 TBL flour
1 3/4 cups beef broth (or chicken, but beef gives better depth of flavor)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tsps mustard

Heat 1 TBL butter over medium heat, add onions, and cook until translucent--approx. 3 to 5 minutes.  Remove to a bowl and allow to cool.

Pour the milk over the bread and press down with your fingers so bread sops up all the milk.  Let sit 5 minutes.

When onions are cool, add ground beef, bread mixture, egg, salt, pepper, nutmeg, allspice.  Mix lightly until just combined, then shape into 1 1/4 inch meatballs.

Heat 1 TBL butter along with 1 TBL oil over medium heat.  Add meatballs and cook, turning frequently, to brown and cook through.  Remove to a plate.  (Tip:  don't overcrowd the pan or the meat will steam instead of browning.  Cook in batches if necessary.)

Turn heat to low and add remaining 3 TBL butter.  Sprinkle flour over the butter and cook, stirring, until golden brown.  Slowly whisk in the beef broth.  Remove from heat and stir in sour cream until dissolved.   

Return to low heat and stir in worcestershire sauce, garlic powder and mustard.  Cook over low heat for 6 to 10 minutes until sauce thickens.  Add meatballs during remaining four minutes.

Serve over noodles or mashed potatoes.

My thought:  If you wanted to make this dish during a weeknight when you're more pressed for time, you can make the meatballs in advance.  You can even freeze them on a cookie sheet then add to a plastic storage bag or container.  Then all you have to do is brown and cook the meatballs and make the sauce.

GIVEAWAY!!!

AN RT MAGAZINE TOP PICK!!

Available for pre-order. Released on July 4!

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

The county fair is the highlight of the year for the small town of Lovett, Michigan—especially for food-and-lifestyle blogger Shelby McDonald, who writes as the Farmer’s Daughter. She’s submitting jams and jellies she’s created from the produce she grows at Love Blossom Farm in hopes of harvesting a blue ribbon.

But the townspeople get more than just the excitement of hayrides, tractor pulls, and cotton candy when Shelby’s neighbor and volunteer fireman, Jake Taylor, extricates the body of Zeke Barnstable instead of a dummy during a demonstration of the Jaws of Life. The fact that Jake and Zeke were known to be at odds plants suspicion in the minds of the police. As evidence against Jake grows, Shelby knows she has to plow through the clues to weed out the true killer and save her friend.INCLUDES DELICIOUS RECIPES 

To be entered, leave a comment below: sour cream and nutmeg in your Swedish meatballs--yes or no??

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and more giveaways!!

Swedish Cardamom Bread

by Sheila Connolly

Mel, Charles and Anna
Johnson

My parents divorced when I was twelve, and a few years later my mother remarried.  Her new husband was of Swedish descent (on both sides), so I ended up with a pair of Swedish step-grandparents. They filled their roles admirably: their son was an only child, and they didn’t want to do anything to harm their relationship with him, so they accepted a new wife and two teen-age step-grandchildren with good grace. We spent many holidays and birthdays together, and they even attended my college graduation.

Grandmother Johnson was a baker by choice (a bank secretary by profession, retired by the time we knew her).  Each Christmas she would make an array of cookies—spritz, and thin ginger cookies topped by an almond—and breads like limpa, a traditional Swedish rye bread flavored with fennel, caraway and anise.  She also made a braided cardamom bread that my sister and I both remember fondly—and that’s my Christmas offering to you.

Cardamom is not widely used, and it may be an acquired taste, because its flavor is very distinctive. It smells wonderful in baking. This is a raised bread.  Sadly a lot of people don’t have the time to make yeast breads these days (all that rising, you know), particularly if they’re also trying to make cookies and dinner for the visiting relatives and decorate the house and shop for gifts and … I’m tired just writing about it.  But if you’re ever in the mood to experiment and find yourself with time on your hands (ha!), this is a nice bread to try.

 

Swedish Cardamom Bread

1-1/2 cups scalded milk (just short of boiling, with little bubbles around the edge)

1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp ground cardamom

1 pkg dry yeast

6 cups flour

 

Note:  This bread asks for three risings.  Since it’s sometimes hard to find a consistently warm place in your home in winter, I suggest turning the oven on to a low temperature and letting your bread rise on top.  Then preheat it to cooking temperature during the last rise.

Combine the milk, butter (which will melt in the warm milk), sugar and salt and let the mixture cool.

Dissolve the yeast in a scant quarter-cup lukewarm water.

Add the beaten egg, cardamom and the dissolved yeast to the milk mixture and blend.

Stir in the flour.  Knead for 10-15 minutes (if you have a stand mixer, you can use your dough hook).

Form into a ball. Generously grease a large bowl, and place the ball in it, turning it once to cover all side (you don’t want the surface to dry out), cover with a clean cloth, place in a warm place and let rise until doubled in size, 30-40 minutes.

Before and after rising

Punch it down (this is fun!).  Then let rise again until doubled.  Punch once more.

 

 

Divide the dough into three parts.  Roll each part into a long thin snake (about 18”) then braid them together.  Make a circle of the braid and pinch the ends together to make a wreath. Place on a greased baking sheet and cover with a clean towel and let rise yet again, about 45 minutes or until doubled.

 

 

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

(Yes, you’ve now committed your entire day to sitting around waiting for your bread to rise.  Go write your holiday letter or wrap presents while you wait.)

 

 

 

Mix an egg with a little water and brush over the top of your bread, then sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a rack.

Confession time:  this recipe as given makes a monster loaf that will serve a starving nation.  I’d suggest dividing this and making a pair of smaller, more manageable breads.

 

The big one

 

 

The little one

 

God Jul!

(Merry Christmas)