Swedish Meatballs 2

Ingredients

Meatballs:
2 slices white bread, crusts removed, then torn into tiny pieces
1/4 cup whole milk
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 small red onion, grated or finely diced
1 large egg, beaten
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp butter

Gravy:
2 cups beef broth
2 tbsp flour
1/4 cup cold water
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Directions

Meatballs:

In a small bowl, soak the bread in the milk until very soft.

In a larger bowl, combine all the meatball ingredients (except the butter), then add the soaked bread, and mix together well with your hands. Shape the mixture into golf ball sized balls, you should end up with about 2 dozen.

Heat the butter in a large skillet (I use cast iron) and add the meatballs. Cook a batch at a time, until very browned on the outside, but cooked through, about 10 minutes per batch. Shake the skillet from time to time so the meatballs roll around, and brown evenly. Place the cooked meatballs in the oven to keep warm.

Gravy:

Pour 1 cup of stock into the hot pan that you used to brown the meatballs, let it simmer for about 5 minutes while scraping the bottom of the skillet with a spatula to release any stuck bits from the meatballs. Strain that ‘gravy’ into a clean saucepan, then stir in the remaining cup of stock. In a small bowl, whisk the flour into the cold water until smooth, then whisk this mixture into the warm gravy. Let this simmer for about 5 minutes, whisking constantly, until it thickens, then add the cream and salt and pepper.