Adam Liaw's Swedish meatballs in cream sauce recipe

There’s no more identifiably Swedish dish than good old Swedish meatballs, and they are still a home-cooked favourite to this day. They’re perfect with pickled cucumbers and pickled lingonberries, or lingonberry jam.

Swedish meatballs in cream sauce

serves 4

¼ cup (60g) butter
¼ cup (35g) plain flour
2 cups (500ml) beef stock
¾ cup (190ml) pouring cream

Meatballs
1½ cups (110g) loosely packed fresh breadcrumbs
2 tbsp pouring cream
250g minced pork
500g minced beef
1 onion, finely grated
½ tsp grated nutmeg
1½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground white pepper

Mashed potatoes
1kg potatoes
1 tbsp salt, plus extra for seasoning
200g butter, chilled and cut into cubes
1 cup (250ml) milk

pickled cucumbers, to serve
pickled lingonberries or lingonberry jam, to serve

Heat your oven to 200C.

For the mashed potatoes, place the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, add the salt and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes come away easily from a small sharp knife inserted into them.

Strain the potatoes and return to the dry saucepan over very low heat for one minute to dry. Turn off the heat and allow to steam off for five minutes.

Mash the potatoes very well, add the butter, then gradually stir in the milk until combined. Season well with sea salt.

For the meatballs, put the breadcrumbs in a large bowl, pour the cream over them and leave to soak for a few minutes. Add the pork, beef, onion, nutmeg, salt and white pepper and mix to combine.

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Form into small balls and place on a large baking tray. Pour a little water into the base of the tray and bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the meatballs are just cooked through. Remove from the tray to drain.

Heat a large frying pan over medium heat until very hot, then add half the butter.

Cook the meatballs for about five minutes, turning until well browned all over; you can do this in batches if you wish. Remove the meatballs from the pan, set aside and keep warm. Do not wash the pan.

To make the sauce, return the pan to medium heat, add the remaining butter and sprinkle the flour over, stirring and scraping any residue from the bottom of the pan. Add the stock a little at a time and bring to a simmer. Cook for two minutes, then stir in the cream. Season to taste.

Serve the meatballs drizzled with the cream sauce, with the mashed potato, pickled cucumber and lingonberries alongside.

Note: The key to a good Swedish meatball is not the sauce – it’s the browned surface the meatballs get when they’re fried. Take care of this part and the rest will take care of itself.