Little Foodies Sweden - Meatball Challenge

If somebody had told me that I'd feel nervous about a challenge between my home cooked food and bought food I'd have laughed. But nervous I was. I made the Swedish Style Meatballs (recipe below) and bought some ready made Organic Swedish Meatballs from Waitrose. For the purpose of the test only we tried one of each.

Homemade on the left - Bought on the right

Preferences were as follows:
Hubby: Homemade
Little: Homemade
Small: Bought
Me: Homemade, though I did waiver!

So homemade was the winner! Thank goodness for that. Obviously I sulked about Small's final decision but I soon got over it.

The bought ones were really good, they had a nice texture and lots of flavour. But though they were organic they still tasted processed. The homemade ones had a softer texture, but could definitely have done with more salt. I think that's why Small preferred the bought ones, he loves really strong tasting food and as the bought ones were heavily salted, they did seem to have more flavour. Served with all the trimmings of lingonberry jam, pickled cabbage, runner beans and the traditional creamy sauce, the homemade ones won hands down and I think anybody would have come to that conclusion. Really, I'm not just saying that.

The recipe for our Swedish Style Meatballs (made approx 40 meatballs)
250g organic beef mince
250g organic pork mince
1 medium onion peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon of oil for frying the onion
1 cup of double cream
1/2 cup of Wholegrain Buckwheat flour
1 egg
a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper
1 teaspoon all spice
2oz butter and a big splosh of oil for frying the meatballs
Flour on a plate for rolling the meatballs prior to frying

Fry the onion in tablespoon of oil
In a large bowl add the pork and beef mince and mix it together with your hands.
Add in the flour, double cream, egg, all spice, salt and pepper and the fried onion. Again mix with your hands. You need to really get stuck in and mix well.
Form into small round balls and roll in the flour on a plate.
Put on a separate plate until you are ready to fry them.
In a large frying pan add the butter and oil and warm. Add the meatballs and fry gently for about 5 minutes on each side. I finished mine off in the oven as I was getting other things ready. They could have been finished in the frying pan. You'd have to test to make sure they were cooked through.

This was our version as we didn't have things to hand that were needed. Most recipes that I've seen for Swedish meatballs have potato in and rusk flour. Ours were really good. They're very different to Italian style meatballs but equally delicious! It would depend what sort of mood for food you were in to determine whether to go Italian or Swedish.

Swedish Style Cream Sauce
1 cup of double cream
1 cup of beef stock
2 tablespoons Japanese Teriyaki Sauce
1 tablespoon plain flour (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Put the cream, stock, teriyaki sauce and salt and pepper in a pan and start to warm through. Whisk in some plain flour to thicken if required.

Really delicious. I would make this again as a sauce for other things too. Again, it was different to Swedish recipes which all those that I saw said to add Chinese Soy Sauce and not Teriyaki but as we've been using soy sauce a lot recently we'd run out.

Little Foodies Sweden

This is a selection of some of the Swedish things we've bought. I just love the name knackerbrod - I think it's because I always feel like that!

To say things are busy would be a mild understatement. I have a 3 year old birthday party to get ready for tomorrow. Our lucky Little Foodies watched a tree house being built in our garden over the last two days. Blogging is on the list but it's a very long list, and includes food for the wedding in France and packing for our mammoth trip next week, to top (or topple) the list a 6 year old birthday party to be arranged for the day after we get to France (2 days before the wedding). At least I'm keeping busy!

Will report on the meatball challenge - very interesting....!! Were the children sent to their rooms or were they given extra treats for being so lovely about Mama's cooking...?

Note to self: BREATHE!

Little Foodies Sweden

I think we may have to re-visit the Caribbean, the weather just isn't cutting it. Hubby explained something about a gulf stream, something or other weather front. It was completely lost on me but wish I'd paid more attention so that I could recall it now.

So we're moving on, our next virtual visit (before our holiday) will be Sweden. I grew up with a friend whose dear Mum (Lilian) is from Sweden and I've tasted many a home cooked Swedish dish. Thankfully now that we've moved nearer to where I grew up they're not very far away and I will be able to call on them this week to pick Lilian's brains.

I made the tortuous journey to Ikea and hit the food section where I stocked up on a few bits and pieces. Little mitts got on the Anna's Pepparkakkor (spicy biscuits) within an hour of them being in the house, there are a few broken pieces left in the bottom of the tin. It's a lovely tin though, one which we will keep and re-use.
Not sure I should say this but the family also taught me how not to be embarrassed about bodies. In England, as I'm sure in lots of places around the world, you go into any changing rooms and you will see lots of females hiding behind whatever they can, flushed red to be in a state of undress infront of other people, even other females. Lilian made me see that, though different, we are all very similar and should not hide or be ashamed of our bodies, they're just bodies... Very free thinking but something I'm grateful for. I should just point out..... I don't advocate parading around in the noddy and you will never see me on a nudist beach - there is a limit!

Looking forward to Swedish meatballs. We're going to do a taste test between our own homemade ones and bought ones (organic from Waitrose). Keep your fingers crossed for me!