Brontë's recipe Swedish meatballs

• servings: 4
• total time: 90 minutes

Ingredients

butter and oil, for frying

1 onion, finely chopped or grated

250g pork mince

250g beef mince (minimum 15% fat)

30g breadcrumbs

50ml cream

100ml meat stock

1 egg

1 tsp ground allspice

½-1 tsp ground pepper

Dash of Worcestershire or soy sauce

mashed potato, to serve

For the cream gravy (gräddsås)

1 tbsp plain flour

300ml meat stock

glug of single cream

For the stirred lingonberries

100g caster or granulated sugar

250g frozen lingonberries (available in speciality food stores or online)

Directions

1 Melt some butter in a frying pan and fry the grated or chopped onion until caramelised.

2 Put the meats in a food processor season with salt and mix for a minute. In a separate bowl, mix the breadcrumbs, cream, stock and egg together.

3 Add the egg mixture to the meat, tnen the onion and pulse untl combined (don't overmix, but do ensure no larger onion bits remain). The mixture should be sticky, but mouldable. Leave the mixture to rest for 20-25 mins before using.

4 Heat a small knob of butter or drizzle of oil in a frying pan. Shape one small meatball, fry until cooked through, then taste. Adjust the seasoning as neceded, and fry another meatball to test it until you get it just right.

5 Shape the rest of the mixture into inalvidual meatballs usıng your hands - it helps if your hands are slightly wet. Each meatball should be around 2.5cm in diameter, or larger if you haven't got time. This mixture will make around 30 meatballs.

6 Melt a knob of butter in the same frying pan with a dash of oil and add a few meatballs - make sure there's plenty of room for you to swirl the pan to help turn them, so they get a uniform round shape and do not stick. You'll probably need to cook them in several batches. Cooking time is usually around 5 mins per batch. Keep warm in a low oven until needed.

7 When the meatballs are done and in the oven, keep the pan over a medium heat to make the gravy. Ensure you have enough fat in there; if not, add a little more butter to the pan. Add the tablespoon of flour and whisk, then add a splash of stock and whisk again as you bring it to the boil. Keep adding stock until you have a creamy gravy, then add a good glug of cream and season well. The gravy should be light brown in colour.

8 To prepare the lingonberries, simply add the sugar to the frozen berries and stir. Leave for a while, then stir again until the sugar dissolves and the berries have defrosted. Leftovers will Keep chilled for up to a few days.

9 Serve the meatballs with the mashed potatoes, gravy, lingonberries and, if you wish, some quick pickled cucumbers.

Notes

GOOD TO KNOW 1 of 5-a-day PER SERVING 558 kcals • tat 31q • saturates 13a carbs 38g - sugars 28g - fibre 2g - protein 30g . salt 0.59g

Bronte's tip If you can't find frozen

lingonberries, serve with lingonberry jam.

Nutrition

• Calories: 558
• Total Fat: 31 g
• Saturated Fat: 13 g
• Sodium: 1 g
• Total Carbohydrate: 38 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2 g
• Total Sugars: 28 g
• Protein: 30 g