I guess these may technically be FINNISH Meatballs…. Since I am not Swedish, but 50% Finnish!  Regardless, they are delicious.  As usual, I looked at a bunch of recipes for ideas.  Since I wanted to make enough for a few meals, I came up with what you see here.  We had a delicious dinner, and 3 more meals worth went in the freezer!  Hurray for leftovers!

For the Meatballs (This recipe made about 60 meatballs)

8 slices soft, white bread, crusts removed, broken into small pieces

1/2 cup milk or cream

Place the bread and milk in a bowl.  Soak the bread until soft.  Mix it up with a fork to make sure it is all softened.

24 ounces ground pork

40 ounces lean ground beef

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 medium yellow onion, grated (Yes, grated – if you have onion goggles, you will want to wear them!)

1 teaspoon ground allspice

Salt and Pepper

1/2 cup of flour

2 quarts beef stock

1 16 ounce container of sour cream

Butter for frying

Combine soaked bread pieces, pork, beef, eggs, onion, allspice and salt and pepper in a big mixing bowl.  Mix and mix and mix and then mix some more.  You want the mixture to be light and fluffy.  If too “wet” to hold together, add a half cup of Panko bread crumbs.  (Yes, these are referred to Japanese bread crumbs.  However, they are made with white bread that has had the crusts removed.  This should not cause an international crisis, as I have seen in some comments on other recipes!)

Pre-heat the oven to 325′.  Shape the meat mixture into 1-2 inch meatballs.  Melt about a tablespoon of butter  in a large sauté pan (or Dutch oven) on medium heat.  Brown the meatballs on all sides, in batches, careful not to crowd the pan.  Move the meatballs to a baking sheet.   Bake the meatballs for 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and set aside while you make the sauce.

Sous Chef Jasper is convinced a meatball will fall to the floor!  Uh, make that total 59 meatballs!

Heat the sauté pan to medium heat.  Add a little more butter to the sauté pan, if needed.   Add the flour and make a roux.  Add the beef stock slowly and continue to whisk, while bringing the sauce to a boil.  The sauce should be thick and glossy.   You will be adding sour cream in the next step, and will not be able to add additional thickeners.   I actually needed to “tighten up” the sauce a bit so I added, 4 Tablespoons of…..Did you guess it?  BISTO!  I then let the sauce simmer about 5 more minutes.  Reduce the heat to very, very low.  Add the sour cream.  Stir well.  (I used my immersion blender at this stage, to make the sauce as smooth as possible.)  Return the meatballs to the saucepan.

The best part….3 more meals!

Serve with buttered noodles or mashed potatoes and LINGONBERRIES!  Enjoy…

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