This was one of my favorite meals when I was growing up. Whenever mom made it, she would just use a packet of seasoning for the meatballs and the sauce/gravy. Well... I was at the grocery store tonight and I realized I hadn't eaten SM's in years and it sounded really good, but I couldn't find a seasoning packet anywhere! "Oh well, that's ok" I thought... "I'll just find a recipe!", which is one of my favorite things to do :D. Besides, I'm about 25% Swedish, so I was feeling confident :D. I found a couple recipes on www.allrecipes.com that I kind-of combined (and added my own personal flair to) and the details are below :).
First thing to do is make the meatballs:
*1.25 lbs of ground beef (I use 93% lean)
*1 cup bread crumbs (you can use regular bread crumbs or I used Italian seasoned ones that were store-bought)
*4 Tbsp. evaporated milk
*1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
*1 tsp salt
*1/4 tsp pepper
*1 egg (beaten)
*1/2 tsp onion powder
*1/4 cup dried minced onion
*1/4 tsp parsley
In one bowl, put the breadcrumbs and evaporated milk together, stir. In another larger bowl, put the beef, nutmeg, salt, pepper, onion stuff, parsley, and egg. Add the bread crumb mix and knead with your hands until all mixed together. Grab about 2 tablespoons worth of meat mix and roll it up in your hands to make a meatball. Set aside on a cookie sheet/wax paper/or some other non-stick surface. Roll up the rest of the meatballs.
In a non-stick pan, put about 4-6 Tablespoons of butter and put on stovetop at medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted, add about half of the meatballs and allow to brown thoroughly. Shake the pan slightly to turn the meatballs until they're uniformly brown (I also had to use a pair of tongs, because the shaking didn't do the best job). Cook the other half of meatballs and set all aside.
Sauce:
*Rest of the can of Evaporated Milk
*1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
*1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
*Dash of Pepper
*1/4 tsp. salt (or to taste)
Put in small pot and cook on low-medium until smooth and hot. I stirred with a whisk to help it all mix together :).
Finally, cook up some egg noodles or rice. Most people eat Swedish Meatballs with noodles, but I grew up eating them on rice. I just realized tonight that that's probably because my dad hates noodles, but I like them both ways :). Here's a picture of the final result:
Let me know if you have any questions and if you try to make this yourself! Good luck :).
