Monday, February 04, 2013

Tastes Like Meatloaf?

One of Catherine's favorite things to eat is Swedish Meatballs. I never made them. She loves to get them in frozen dinners or out to eat. So I decided to try making them. I like Swedish Meatballs too.

Once again, on Pintrest, I found a recipe that sounded good. So I made it.

Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 celery stalk, minced
1/4 cup minced parsley
1 lb 93% lean beef
1 egg
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp allspice
2 cups reduced sodium beef stock
2 oz light cream cheese

Directions:

In a large deep saute pan, heat oil on medium heat, add onions and garlic; sauté until onions are translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add celery and parsley and cook until soft, about 3-4 more minutes. Let cool a few minutes.

In a large bowl combine beef, egg, onion mixture, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and allspice. Mix well and form meatballs with your hands 1/8 cup each (fill 1/4 cup then divide the meat in half).

Add beef stock to the pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and slowly drop meatballs into the broth. Cover and cook about 20 minutes. Remove the meatballs with a slotted spoon and set aside in a serving dish. Strain the stock, add to blender with cream cheese and pulse until smooth. Return to pan and simmer a few minutes to thicken, then pour over meatballs. Garnish with parsley and serve over noodles or with toothpicks if you want to set these out as an appetizer.


First of all, I doubled the recipe because Robby and Gena were here. Second, I was out of fresh parsley having used it earlier in the week on a Moroccan stew. So I used dried. My meat was 80/20. I didn't use reduced sodium beef stock. And my cream cheese wasn't light.

But it was a huge hit with Catherine. I should have used a different pan, and I made the meatballs in batches. Catherine ate the first batch before I finished the second. I could have made them all at once in a different pan. The sauce didn't come out very thick. I will have to figure out a way to make it thicker. We ate it with egg noodles and the sauce just kind of fell through. I didn't chop the veggies small enough. Probably I could have pureed them.

Carolynn liked it. But she agreed the sauce needed to be thicker. Michelle got to taste the sauce, and she liked it. Had it been thicker, it would have stuck to the binky better and she would have tasted more. I liked it. I assume Robby liked it. He ate it. Gena picked at it and then gave her meatballs to Robby. David said it tasted like meatloaf. And he would have liked the veggies pureed too. He doesn't like to see the onions. He also said he needed to invent a "Noodle Magnet" so he wouldn't have to chase his noodles all over the plate.

Noodle Magnet.... Coming to an infomercial near you.

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