My Grandma B came to the United States from Sweden when she was about 15 years old. The meals she cooked were an interesting mix of New and Old Country. Unfortunately, her recipes live on only in my culinary memory. I hope these meatballs would have made her proud.

Ingredients:

2 slices soft whole wheat bread, torn into small pieces
scant 2/3 cup 2% milk
1 to 1 and 1/3 lb lean ground beef
1 egg
1 1/2 T onion minced
1/4 t mace
1/4 t pepper
1/8 t allspice
2 T butter
2 T flour
1 can condensed cream of celery soup, or one recipe cream of celery soup
1 cup white wine, divided use
1 cup undiluted evaporated milk
2 T chopped fresh parsley
12 oz uncooked medium wide egg noodles

Spoon Mage™ Note:

As with all ingredients, always get the best beef you can afford. Organic grass-fed beef is better for you and more sustainable. Chuck is another good choice as it has a lot of flavor, but it has more fat and the pan will need to be drained. Ground sirloin is tasty and you may not have to drain off any of the fat (and the flavor with it).

I don’t add salt as the salt in the soup is sufficient for me. If you wish to add salt, do that after the sauce has simmered for 10 minutes.

Directions:

Soak the torn bread in a bowl with milk for about 5 minutes.

Add beef, egg, onion, mace, allspice, pepper, and mix thoroughly with your hands.

Moisten your hands with a bit of water to keep everything from sticking to you. Shape the meat into balls about the size of a walnut.

This makes a rather juicy meatball, especially if you use only 1 pound of meat. It’s ok.

Set a large pan over medium high heat, add the butter, and after the butter gets sizzling, slip the meatballs into the pan using a spoon. Brown the meatballs, turning a couple times.

You may use tongs instead of spoons to turn them over if you are gentle, apologizing to each for the disturbance as you move them about. They are not likely to stay round at all and some of them may end up as meatsquares, but this does not change the flavor!

Go for a nice crisp brown on at least two sides. There is no need to finish cooking the meat all the way through. The meatballs will finish in the sauce, adding just enough of their flavorful juices to the mix.

Remove the browned meatballs to a platter, drain all but 2 T or so of the fat – remember there will be a little excess fat if you used chuck.

Deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup of the wine.

Reduce the temperature to medium-low, add the flour, and stir until well blended.

If you were a tad over the top of the measuring spoon with the flour or if there was not enough fat left in the pan, the flour may not incorporate fully. Thin it out with a little more wine. Add a splash or two until what you have is some nice browned thickened goodness.  Smash any roux lumps until they concede and become part of the starter for the sauce. Go for the consistency of tomato paste with this step.

Add the soup, the rest of the cup of wine, and one cup evaporated milk, stirring it all well into the deglazed drippings.

Cook over medium, stirring until the gravy is thick and smooth.

If you were a little heavy with the flour, the mix will be as thick as condensed soup, add the rest of the condensed milk from the can so the consistency is more like gravy. If you decide to add in another splash of wine, do not add more than 1/4 cup more. It is possible to over-wine this sauce. You would be better off adding a touch of water.

Add the parsley and pepper to taste.

Gently place the meatballs in the pan with the gravy. Cover and simmer on medium-low for about 20 minutes. Stir gently and frequently so you can keep an eye on the sauce. Reduce the heat if things bubble about too much or if you forgot to set the water to boil and need to keep the meatballs on heat for longer than 20 minutes.

While the meatballs simmer, cook up some medium or large egg noodles per package directions. No yolk noodles are just as good as regular. Buy the ones you like and don’t apologize for your preference.

Drain the noodles, place them in a serving bowl, and top with a couple pats of butter (this is just so they don’t stick together). You could use olive oil, but butter is more traditional in this Swedish style comfort food.

To serve, lay noodles on each plate, and scoop the meatballs and gravy onto the top of the noodles. Enjoy with a lovely salad or green vegetable. The meatballs are also wonderful over rice instead of noodles.

Njut av

(Swedish for enjoy)