Swedish Meatballs

Contributed by Dawn Marie Hamilton

We could always count on my mom to make Swedish meatballs during the holidays and for other festive occasions. Sometimes she served the rich, delicious meatballs as an appetizer with fancy toothpicks, other times she served them over egg noodles as a main course. Either way, we devoured the lot. Mom passed in 2010, but I think of her each time I make her recipe. The following is my rendition of this family favorite.

Ingredients:

2 pounds meatloaf blend*
1 cup homemade breadcrumbs from stale bread
1 cup milk
1 onion, minced
3 tablespoons butter
2 large eggs, beaten
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
pinch nutmeg
2 cups beef broth
3 tablespoons flour
pinch lemon peel
1 cup sour cream
chopped dill or parsley for garnish
egg noodles (optional)

* Alternately use—as my mother did—1 pound ground beef, ½ pound ground pork, and ½ pound ground veal.

1. Blend meat, breadcrumbs and milk in a large bowl. Meanwhile sauté minced onion in 1 tablespoon butter. Add onion, eggs, pepper, salt and nutmeg to meat. Mix well and roll into small balls.

2. Brown meatballs in 2 tablespoons butter. Remove meatballs from pan to clean bowl. To pan juice, add beef broth and whisk in flour until smooth. Add lemon peel. (The gravy will not be thick at this point.) Return meatballs to gravy and simmer for 1 hour.

3. Remove meatballs to serving bowl. Stir sour cream into gravy and heat. Pour gravy over meatballs and serve as appetizer or over egg noodles as main course. Garnish with dill or parsley.

6 generous main course servings. Enjoy!