Swedish Meatballs - Home Cooked Recipe 15

Eating at the SwedeDish food truck inspired me to make this meal.  As you may have read, I have previously posted about meatballs, with a great Asian meatball recipe.  But Swedish meatballs are something I have always enjoyed.  The creamy sauce they can be served with goes so well with a tender. beefy meatball.  So I scoured the internet looking for something that would be feasible for me to make.  After perusing a bunch of recipes, I came up with my own version based on a collaboration from several of the recipes I viewed.  Here is MY version of Swedish meatballs.  They came out great, although I still think the SwedeDish food truck's were even better.

Swedish Meatballs

For the meatballs:
1lb ground beef
1 quarter of an onion, grated
3 slices of white bread, torn into small pieces
1/8 cup of milk
1 egg
1 tsp chopped parsley (fresh or dried, I had dried on hand)
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1/2 tsp onion powder
dash of paprika (smoked or unsmoked, I used smoked)
dash of cayenne
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Put bread pieces in a mixing bowl.  Toss with the milk, and let soak for 5 minutes.  Add in beef and egg and mix well.  Add spices, and mix until combine.  Roll out golf ball sized meatballs.  Place on a baking rack on a baking sheet.  Bake for 40 minutes.  Should produce between 20 and 25 meatballs.

For the sauce:
2 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
6 ounces beef broth (or stock)
2 ounces heavy cream
salt & pepper

Place butter in saucepan and let melt.  Over medium heat, whisk in flour and cook for 2 minutes to cook out the flour taste.  Whisk in the beef broth slowly.  Stir well to prevent lumps.  Let cook for 5 minutes, then whisk in heavy cream.  Bring to a boil, reduce to low, and let simmer for a few minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.

To serve, place meatballs on plates (5 to 6 per person).  Cover with cream sauce.  Traditionally you can serve these with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam.  I did not have lingonberries so I served mine with cranberry sauce.  The sweet and tart cranberry sauce cuts the richness of the meatballs and their cream sauce.  You could also put these in a crockpot and keep them warm at a party.  Enjoy!!!