Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Have you been to ikea?

Us Aussies love Ikea - unfortunately it's only in a few capital cities here in Australia but fortunately it's not that far from us.  I find it nearly impossible not to spend more than I budgeted, and my hubby now says when we do walk through the doors of the store: 'Remember if you buy it, you're putting it together'.

It doesn't stop me from batting my eyelashes when we return home though!  Nothing like being optimistic.

Anyways, if you haven't been to ikea, they sell food also - and the frozen swedish meatballs are fantastic.  I used to say I would go there for the meatballs alone, but since discovering this recipe, I no longer need to make the trip!  I can make them at home for at least half the price!


The meatball mix I made below, makes my family two meals - roughly 60 meatballs.  These freeze well so I figured why not make two lots... I'd also use this quantity if serving them as canapes.  you could serve it with the sauce as a dipping sauce.


Ingredients:
meatballs
500 grams beef mince
500 grams pork mince
3 potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 cup breadcrumbs, lightly toasted (or make breadcrumbs from toast!)
2 eggs
3/4 cup cream
salt and pepper


sauce/gravy
1tsp beef stock powder
200ml water
100ml cream
splash of soy sauce
pepper
2 tb cornflour


Method:
Mix all meatball ingredients together in bowl.  Mix thoroughly at first with a spoon, then when liquid is evenly distributed, mix it up with your hands!

Heat about 3 tb butter in a frypan, when hot, add walnut-sized meatballs and fry for about 2-3 minutes and turn over gently.  Transfer to baking tray, add butter to frypan as required, and repeat until all done!


Then make your sauce!
Basically combine water, cream, stock powder, soy sauce and pepper, sprinkle cornflour on top and whisk over medium heat until smooth

Allow to simmer and thicken.

Pour over your meatballs, or in bowl to dip if serving as canapes


You can find more step-by-step cooking from scratch posts and much more at my blog, Frills in the Hills - the fabulous life of our family of five - the fun, the food and the frugality.  Now also tragically on facebook and twitter...

9 comments:

  1. My kids love meatballs! I make mine all turkey and freeze the leftovers in bags so I can just pull them out and pop them in some spaghetti or soup. Thanks for the recipe! I wish we had an IKEA closer also. Our nearest one is 5 hrs away I think... Probably a good thing.

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  2. I adore Ikea but there's none in Kansas :( The recipe for the meatballs is unexpected - potatoes are in there? - wow. Looks delish!

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  3. wow, I'm drooling in here...looks delicious!

    thanks for sharing :)

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  4. we are actually having these this evening--the IKEA ones. We love to pair them with the potato fritters they sell also.

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  5. Awesome, thank you for the recipe. I love IKEA and when we go we always have the meatballs!

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  6. Meatballs are always a bit hit in our family. My boys gobble them down like candy. IKEA especially does them well. I'm excited to try out your version!

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  7. Oh, my husband is going to love you. He always wants to stop there. OUrs is about 40 minutes away, but we go that direction quite often. I can't wait to try these and I am taking your word that they are great, probably better right?

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  8. They are GREAT, I think they're a touch better because they taste so fresh.

    I love cracking the fast-food at home. Last week I cracked McDonalds Hotcakes! (Check my blog I think I posted it last Monday?)

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  9. We only have 1 year to wait for the new Denver Ikea to open, it is finally under construction. I am going to have to try this recipe, the potatoes are an interesting idea for meatballs. I always bake my meatballs in a hot oven rather than frying them because I tend to get them over browned or turn them too soon and smash them. Baking them keeps the shape nice and round and they brown just right.

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