Day 37: Scandinavian Spiced Meatballs with Caramelized Apples

This recipe makes a lot of meatballs so make sure you have dinner guests or you are going to be able to eat the leftovers the next day.

Scandinavian Spiced Meatballs with Caramelized Apples

This recipe looks complicated at first glance, but meatballs are pretty easy. You blend all of the meatball ingredients in a food processor, shape the little suckers, and then cook them with the sauce ingredients.

Start by blending 1/2 medium onion, 1/3 cup dry red wine, 1 large egg yolk, 1 garlic clove (I used 4), nutmeg, ground ginger, salt, coriander, cumin, and pepper in your food processor. Now the recipe says to add 1 lb lean ground beef and 1/2 lb ground chicken (or turkey) to the processor and pulse 5 times. I just turned out the processor into a large bowl and added the meats and blended with my hands. At this point you also add 3 sliced up large scallions 5 large, diced, pitted prunes.

Many meatball recipes I have done in the past call for 1 tablespoon or so of white rice as a thickener, here they use prunes. And they magically blend in and you can't taste them, so don't worry about those picky eaters--what they don't know won't hurt them!

Shape into 20 plus meatballs. I ended up with a few more since those organic ground meats come pre-packaged and I didn't want to waste any meat. So I had to cook my meatballs in two batches.

Film a saute pan with oil and heat over medium-high. Add the meatballs and brown before turning. (The authors point out that your meatballs should not touch, but I would have to cook mine in 3 or 4 batches and they turned out just fine squeezed in together.) Once they are browned, turn the meatballs and sprinkle with pepper, a bit of bruised caraway seeds, 1/2 of a diced onion and 1 diced apple. (1/4" dice works nice.) Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and cook until middles are no longer pink, about 8 minutes.

Remove meatballs with slotted spoon and place in serving dish. Turn heat to high and boil down the pan juices in the apple mixture. Using a wooden spatula, frequently stir the apples until they are getting nice and brown. Then add 1/2 dry red wine and keep cooking until wine is cooked down. Then add chicken broth and and boil it down by half and then pour sauce over meatballs to serve.

Now, I have to admit, sometimes I don't read things too carefully and I added the wine and the broth at the same time and I let it cook down by half and it turned out delicious anyways.
I served these babies with spicy green beans, and smashed and roasted potatoes. The roasted potato recipe I found on The Pioneer Woman's blog. Dish delish! I make these potatoes all the time now.

62 recipes down in How To Eat Supper.