Ikean Meatballs

Mike and I went shopping at Ikea a few weeks ago.
I know “the snob” in some readers may be thinking “how cheap”. I don’t care if you are thinking that. I love Ikea- they do have good-looking, low-cost items for the home.
Anyway, I couldn’t help to take a wander through Ikea's Swedish food store, and I bought a Swedish cookbook, as well as other food items.
Swedish food is something I know absolutely nothing of. So I must admit, I am finding it rather strange, but certainly exciting- a cuisine of apples, cabbage, cream, lingonberries, potatoes, pickles, meatballs and sausages (I am sure there is more to it than that but that’s what is in the book).
The obvious recipes to try were the meatballs (of which there are several in the book).
Me being me, I have changed the recipe in a few ways (Ilva, I hope I haven’t deferred too much from tradition):
Firstly, by using a lot less cream- my first attempt produced a rather “sloppy” meatball mixture. Certainly in this case, less is more.
Secondly, I did not know what “rusk” was, nor could I find any. When I did the research, I discovered rusk to be a sweet bread/ biscuit. I substituted with plain sweet biscuit crumbs.
And thirdly, the sauce (similar to French veloute) I made separately- instead of cooking with the meatballs.
To accompany the meal, you are meant to provide lingonberry preserve, pickled cucumbers and boiled potatoes. I made a simple potato salad, rather than boiled (boring) potatoes as suggested in the book. I kept all the elements separate, so one could take a bit of this and a bit of that.
It all worked rather harmoniously.


For the meatballs- sweat a small amount of onion in butter for 5 minutes. Steam and roughly mash 2 small floury potatoes. Combine with 450g minced pork (or veal), 1 free-range egg, 1 Tbl crème fraiche and 50g of biscuit crumbs (the plainest biscuits you can find). Add a few drops of water if the mixture seems dry. Season with plenty of allspice, nutmeg, sea salt and white pepper. Form the mixture into largish meatballs (I like big balls). Cook very gently in plenty of butter until golden.
For the sauce- stir together 100ml crème fraiche, 200ml real stock and 1 Tbl flour. Bring to a simmer, always stirring and cook gently for about 15 minutes. If the sauce becomes lumpy (like mine did), simply pour through a sieve. Season with plenty of white pepper and nutmeg.
As you can see, these Ikean meatballs are straightforward to prepare. Mike and I ate them all for our dinner. I wish we hadn’t eaten them all, so I could have some now!