Seat of Our Pants

For some reason, a lot of Americans associate us Swedes with . . . no, not IKEA, ABBA or boxy cars, but with meatballs. Rightly so – we make a simple but delicious variety of the meatball – a staple of many cuisines around the world but perfected here. Here’s how my Mom makes them:

(This batch will feed 6-8 people. If you make too much, they are excellent to freeze and enjoy on another day)

Ingredients:

800g minced beef

3tbsp oats

2dl whole milk

1 egg

2tbsp mustard (preferably a good, strong sort – like the Dijon mustard)

2tbsp potato starch (important, or the meatballs won’t stay balls when you fry them)

1 large onion, chopped and fried golden-brown

Salt and black pepper to taste

a pinch of Oregano

Butter (for frying)

Put the oats in a large bowl and pour in the milk. Let it sit for five minutes while you chop and gently fry the onions in butter. Mix the onions along with the other ingredients in the bowl and let it rest in the fridge for one hour.

Bring the bowl out and mix the content again: do not overdo this, or the fat in the meat will stick to the edges of the bowl, making the meatballs crumble when you fry them.

It’s time to roll the meatballs. Wet your hands in cool water: this will keep the meat from sticking to your hands (keep a vessel of water handy so that you can re-apply water in between rolls). Grab a pinch of the mix and roll a Swedish-meatball sized meatball: approx. 2 centimeters across. Keep rolling til you have used up all the mix.

Fry the meatballs in butter over medium heat. Don’t overcrowd the frying pan, and do not stir the balls too much – you want to keep the fragile little things as intact as possible. The meatballs are done once they turn into a dark, delicious-looking brown (but not burned!).

Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley and serve with potatoes, green pepper gravy and Swedish Lingonsylt (available at, erm, IKEA; or use cranberry jam). Enjoy!

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