Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients

• 8oz ground pork
• 12oz ground beef
• 2 slices sandwich bread
• 1/3c milk
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped finely
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 5tbsp butter
• scant 1/4c flour
• 2c beef stock
• sour cream

Saute the onion in a tablespoon of butter until translucent and starting to brown a bit, about 5-8 minutes. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a food processor, add the bread (torn up) and the milk so that it can soak. You can also add the salt, cardamom, and nutmeg right now.

When the onions are done sauteing, add to the milk/bread mixture and toss the meat in there and the egg. Pulse the mixture until it comes together. You will probably need a spoon to kind of turn the mixture every so often between pulses.

Melt the remaining 4 tbsp butter in a wide saute pan (you can reuse the one you used for the onions). Form the meatballs to be about 1-2tbsp in size, placing them in the butter as you go. Keep the heat low-ish so that they sizzle a little but don't splatter. Also you don't want to burn the butter. Don't crowd the pan, you're going to have to do a couple batches. Turn the meatballs as they cook until they're pretty well browned. You don't need to cook them through at this stage. When you're done, fish them out and put them aside on a plate or cookie sheet and continue cooking the other batches until you've done all of them.

When the meatballs are done, set aside. In the pan, add the flour and whisk around in the remaining grease. Then add the beef stock and continue to whisk as you bring it to a simmer, scraping up the bottom of the pan.

When the gravy comes to a simmer, re-add all of the meatballs. Turn heat to low and cover the pan to cook for another 8-10 minutes. Then you can add sour cream to the gravy (if you're feeling decadent) - go for about 1/3c, tops, though.

Serve with mashed potatoes, black pepper, and lingonberry jam.

Thoughts: Nailed it. We really wanted comfort food tonight, and I think we did it. This is probably our most successful meatball recipe yet, also. This makes enough to feed about 4, but we made it for 2 with a lot of leftovers, as it should be.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Limpa Bread II

This is another limpa bread recipe. We bought way too much rye flour so we've decided to make a new limpa bread recipe every week until the flour is used up. Stay tuned.

Ingredients

• 1 pkg yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tbp sugar
• 1 cup hot water
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbp brown sugar
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 3 tbp molasses
  
• 2 tbp butter
• 2 tsp caraway seeds
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• grated rind of large orange
• 2 cups rye flour
• 5 cups all-purpose flour

Mix yeast, lukewarm water, and sugar in a container. Let it sit.
In a large mixing bowl, combine hot water, brown sugar, salt, butter, seeds, and orange rind. Stir and cool to a lukewarm temperature.
Add the risen yeast and 1 cup rye flour; beat vigorously until batter is smooth.
Add another cup of rye flour and 2 cups of normal flour. Mix well.
Now add enough normal flour to form a soft dough (lots). Knead dough for about 10 minutes.
Do the microwave trick. Put in greased bowl and cover with saran wrap. Put in microwave (don't turn it on, obv.) for an hour, or until the dough has doubled in volume.
Divide dough in half. For each half, press it into a rectangle, dimple it with your knuckles, fold it in thirds, press it flat again, fold it in thirds the other way, and form it into a loaf. Set each half to rise for another hour.
Preheat oven for 350 F. When preheated, slash the top of the bread loaf and brush it with water. Put the bread in the oven and cook for 45 minutes.
Eat.

Thoughts: This was pretty good. It was easier to make than the other recipe, but it could have used more molasses. If we were to use this recipe, we would definitely brush the top with molasses before baking, and we would also sprinkle seeds over the top. Otherwise it was comparable.

Swedish limpa bread

Ingredients

• 1.5 cup all-purpose flour (plus extra, as needed. You'll see)
• 1/2 cup rye flour
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 tbp sugar
• 1.5 tsp grated orange peel
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp crushed fennel seed
• 1/2 tsp crushed caraway seed
• 3/4 cup water (plus 4 tsp, for later)
• 3 tbp molasses (plus 1 tbp, for later)
• 2 tbp butter
• 2 tsp coffee
• 1/2 tsp whole fennel seeds
• 1/2 tsp whole caraway seeds

Combine the all-purpose flour, rye flour, yeast, sugar, orange peel, salt, and crushed seeds in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, heat 3/4 cup water, 3 tbp molasses, and 2 tbp butter over low heat until it reaches about 120-130 degrees F. We just guessed on this one. Heat it for about 5 minutes or something. Stir in the coffee.
Stir the water/molasses/butter/coffee mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula. The resulting dough will be very sticky. Very sticky. And it won't look like bread dough. Add extra all-purpose flour until it does look like bread dough.
Turn in out onto a well-floured surface and knead for about 2 minutes. Cover with an inverted bowl and let sit for 5 minutes.
Continue kneading the dough for another 5-8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Shape dough into a ball, place in a large greased bowl (we used pam) and also pam the top of the dough. Loosely cover with greased plastic wrap.
Do the microwave trick and let the dough rise in the microwave for 75 minutes.
Turn dough out onto counter. Using your hands, press the dough down into a rectangle. Use your knuckles to dimple the bread. Fold the bread in thirds (the short way), press it out again with your hands, then fold it in thirds in the other direction. Pinch the seams shut. Drop this rectangle into the bread pan.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and do the microwave trick again. Let it rise for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Stir remaining 4 tsp water together with 1 tbp molasses. Set aside.
After an hour, uncover the bread and make 3 diagonal slashes in the top of the dough. Use a bread knife or steak knife for this or else it won't work. Trust me. I've tried.
Bake for 20 minutes. Take bread out of oven and brush the top liberally with the molasses mixture. Sprinkle the top with the whole caraway and fennel seeds.
Bake for another 10 minutes. Take bread out of oven and brush top with molasses again. The top should be starting to look pretty dark at this point. This is normal. It is not burned.
Bake for another 10 minutes. Take the bread out. Let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
Turn the bread out and let cool for another 5 minutes. Eat it.
Ok. I'll just tell you right now. We skipped 2 out of 3 of the final steps. Can you guess which ones?

Thoughts: This was pretty sweet. And also delicious. I was worried that the amount of molasses in the bread would make it totally gross, but you can't really even taste it. The caraway and fennel are killer. Dan can't think of anything to add. We bought WAY more rye flour than we needed for this recipe, so chances are, we'll make this bread again, but using a different recipe. More to follow.

Disaster Index: 1/10