Frikadeller - Updated recipe

I have a confession to make: I generally chop quite coarsely. And for the most part I am quite happy with the result.

But when making meat balls too coarsely chopped onions tend to towards undesirable effects when shaping and frying the meat balls. So, lately I've started chopping the onions for my meat balls not by hand as I've always done in the past but in the cutter that came with our new electric hand-held mixer/whipper/cutter unit (a purchase of debate in the household - while the need for a new one was indisputable, the type I bought met with some critique).

I've also recently discovered that making meat balls with bread crumbs and milk tends towards juicier meat balls (as opposed to flour and milk - or neither of the two). Here follows an updated recipe for frikadeller (a type of Danish meat ball).

Ingredients:
- 850 g (1 lb 14 oz) minced pork/beef^[1]
- 4 small onions, very finely chopped
- 3 eggs
- ~5 dL (~2 cups) bread crumbs^[2]
- 5 dl (2 cups) milk
- salt and pepper
for frying:
- margarine
to serve:
- rye bread
- red cabbage sauerkraut

The onions were chopped very finely using an electric cutter, then mixed with minced meat, eggs, salt and pepper. Milk was stirred in in portions until the texture was as desired (for frikadeller I usually aim for a little more on the liquidy side than I would for most other types of meat balls).

The meat balls were shaped using a teaspoon (see the original post on frikadeller for pictures of the shaping procedure) and fried in a large pan (medium heat) with some margarine, working mostly in batches.

As you can see I made a heap of them. We ate some right away on rye bread with red cabbage sauerkraut - a perfect combination. I put a lot of the rest in the freezer.


^[1] I used a 50:50 mix available from the local store. This kind of meat balls could also be made mixed pork/veal or even pure pork - but pure beef wouldn't be 'right' for frikadeller.

^[2] I don't buy bread crumbs. I simply grate some old dried out white bread. Whenever I buy fresh bread and don't manage to eat it all before it goes dry, I just leave the bread in a dry place for a couple of weeks (or even longer - it usually doesn't go mouldy if stored in a dry place) to make sure it is really dry - then it is easy to grate to bread crumbs.

Moose Meatballs with Pistachios

This is based on some pistachio containing 'game' meatballs I had the good fortune of tasting a while ago. This didn't turn out quite the way those meatballs were - but still quite nice.

Ingredients:
- 2 onions, finely diced
- 64 g (2 ¹/₄ oz) pistachio nuts, chopped
- 500 g (1.1 lb) minced moose
- pepper
- 2 eggs
- a little milk
served with:
- boiled potatoes
- cornichons
- sliced pickled beet
- lettuce
- tzatziki

Minced moose, diced onions, chopped pistachios, pepper and eggs were added just enough milk to be able to stir the mixture - shouldn't be too liquid. Meatballs were shaped using a tea spoon and fried on the pan in a little oil.

The meatballs were served with potatoes boiled in lightly salted water, lettuce, tzatziki, slices of pickled beet and cornichons.

Kötbullar (Swedish Meatballs)

Kötbullar is Swedish for meat balls, and Swedish meat balls are quite similar to Danish meat balls, but there some subtle differences.

Ingredients:
- 2 dL (0.8 cup) grated bread
- 4 dL (1.6 cup) cream
- 2 large onions, finely diced
- oil
- 840 g (1.8 lbs) finely ground 70/30 beef/pork
- 2 eggs
- salt
- pepper

The bread was grated and soaked in the cream.

The onions were finely diced and fried in oil till translucent.

The cream-soaked bread crumbs (and the cream) was stirred into the ground meat. Then was added salt, pepper, the lightly fried onion and the eggs. The mixture was worked till homogeneous (hard to stir as it was rather thick, so using the hands was better). Then it was shaped into little balls and fried in a pan.

Served with boiled potatoes and cucumber salad.

These kötbullar were quite good - but not quite like the ones you get at Ikea. Now I wonder which is more traditional...

Sesame crusted köfte & cabbage salad

Many years ago, when I was still a child and my parents were encouraging (strongly) me to help with the cooking at home, I read somewhere about sesame crusted meat balls and was allowed to try to make them - although I seem to remember my parents being very sceptical about the concept. The final result didn't make a lasting impression on me (and the fact that we never made them again also speaks for their having not been received so well), but the concept was still somewhere in my head when recently faced with the challenge of using yet more sesame seeds before the impending (and dreaded) move.. In the end, an advertisement in a food magazine lead me to try out this version.

Ingredients:
yoghurt sauce:
- 3 dL (~ 1 1/4 cup) plain yoghurt
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp sambal oelek
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
köfte:
- 640 g (~ 1.4 lb) ground lamb
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 20 g (2/3 oz) fresh mint, chopped
- 2 small onions, finely chopped
- 3/4 dL (1/3 cup) bread crumbs
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 egg
- 50 g (1.75 oz) white sesame seeds
- 50 g (1.75 oz) black sesame seeds
cabbage salad:
- 1 head red cabbage, finely sliced
- 1 small onion
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- 20 g (2/3 oz) fresh coriander, chopped
- 285 g (10 oz) corn kernels
- 2 raw pepperoncini, finely diced

First yoghurt sauce was made by stirring all the ingredients together. Then it was covered and stored in the fridge while making the rest.

For the köfte all the ingredients except for the sesame seeds were mixed and rolled into balls approximately 2-3 cm (1 inch) in diameter, then coated by dipping them into a mixture of black and white sesame seeds. The coated meat balls were lined up on a baking sheet and baked in the oven at 200 C (400 F) for 18 minutes.

The cabbage salad was made simply by stirring the ingredients together.

Served while the köfte were still hot from the oven.

I liked the result, and I seriously doubt that the meatballs I made in parents kitchen many moons ago were anything near as good.

Karbonader (Danish Meatballs 3)

These breaded meatballs are another classic of Danish cooking .. although I don't seem to make them all that often. In fact I have no idea when I last made them (other than that it over 2 years ago).

Ingredients:
- 300 g (2/3 lb) minced pork
- 1 egg
- bread crumbs
- salt & pepper
- oil

The minced pork was pressed into firm balls using the hands, then flattened somewhat by applying light pressure with a knife (this part of the process identical to these other Danish meatballs). In a small bowl the egg was beaten lightly with a fork, and in a second bowl bread crumbs were mixed with salt and pepper (no, I did not have enough bread crumbs in the bowl in the picture - I needed about twice as much). The flattened meat balls were turned out first in egg, then in bread crumbs and fried in the pan until golden and cooked through.

Served with boiled potatoes and a simple salad.

Meze Menu 1

Meze is the middle eastern version of tapas: a selection of smaller snack dishes that served together make up a meal. Without further ado, let's have a look at Meze Menu 1:
- flour tortillas
- tabbouleh
- spanakopitta
- köfte
- grilled eggplant
- hummus

Yes, that is my recipe for (Mexican) flour tortillas but they go just fine in this context as well. The tabbouleh and spanakopitta have been described here very recently. The köfte are a slight variation on my previous recipe, and the hummus was my first attempt at it - it didn't turn out quite right, but I'll get back to that. The funny looking eggplant is called a Sicilian eggplant.

köfte:
- 500 g (about 1 lb) ground beef
- 1 red onion, finely diced
- 4 bird chillies, seeds removed, finely diced
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- fresh basil, chopped
- fresh mint, chopped
- salt
- cayenne pepper
- allspice
- 1 egg

All the ingredients were mixed, and little meat balls formed by hand were fried in a pan using a little oil.

grilled eggplant:
- 1 Sicilian eggplant, sliced thinly

The eggplant slices were grilled under the broiler.

hummus:
- 175 g (6 oz) dried chickpeas
- water
- 4 tbsp tahini
- juice of 1 1/2 lemon
- 2 cloves garlic, mashed

The chickpeas were soaked in cold water overnight, then boiled for about 1.5 hours until very soft. The water was drained off, but not discarded. The chickpeas were blended to a purée and the tahini, lemon juice, and garlic was added. The saved water from boiling them was added in portions until the right creamy texture was attained.

As mentioned the hummus didn't turn out quite right. I think it was perhaps too much lemon juice and/or garlic.

Apart from the hummus, the menu was fantastic.

Update: A better hummus recipe.

Breaded Fish Cakes

We recently had some delicious fish cakes at an Asian restaurant, so I was interested in trying my hand at the art - in the end these were quite different from the ones we had at the restaurant (but still delicious) so I'll probably return with further variations on this theme.

Ingredients
- 500 g (just over 1 lb) potatoes, peeled, cut in chunks
- 400 g (just under 1 lb) pollock fillet
- 2 dL (almost 1 cup) milk
- 1 green chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped
- 16 g (0.5 oz) fresh ginger, finely diced
- 3 scallions, green part only, sliced
- 20 g (0.7 oz) fresh basil, coarsely chopped
- salt
- 1 egg, beaten
- bread crumbs (to cover)
- oil for frying

The potato chunks were boiled tender in lightly salted water. After draining them thoroughly, they were put back in the dry pot and mashed on low heat to give a relatively dry mash. Care was taken not to let them burn (constant stirring/mashing while on the heat).

Simultaneously the fish was put in a frying pan with the milk and 1 dL (almost 1/2 cup) of water, covered, and brought to a boil. The heat was then reduced to allow it to simmer for 5 minutes before removing the pan from the heat. Still covered the fish was let stand 10 minutes in the warm milk to gently finish. Afterwards the fish was lifted out of the milk on to a plate to cool.

The cooled fish was drained, then flaked into the potato mash. The salt, basil, scallions, ginger, and chilli was added, and the the entire mixture was worked together by hand. [1]

The fish cakes were formed and flattened by hand, turned over in egg and bread crumbs and fried till golden brown on both sides in oil on a large pan.

Served with wild rice, cucumber salad and peanut dipping.

[1] I think if I try this again, I would spend an extra egg on the dish to see if the fish cake mass could have a little less tendency to fall apart.

Update: Using more fish relative to potato gives a better result - but you have to use more eggs.

Frikadeller (Danish Meatballs 2)

Unlike horse, the availability of mixed minced meat (pork and beef) is something I was used to growing up - and it's exactly what my old recipe for frikadeller calls for. I went ahead and made a small mountain of meatballs (as one of the pictures show), but normally I would make a smaller batch.

Ingredients:
- 1 kg (2 lb) minced beef/pork
- salt
- pepper
- ca. 4 dL (1.5 cups) flour
- 3 eggs
- 2 medium brown onions (finely diced)
- ca. 4 dL (1.5 cups) milk
- a little margarine/shortening/butter for frying

The minced meat was put in a large bowl together with flour, salt, pepper, eggs, and onion. While stirring with a ladle the milk was added in portions until the texture was right .. yes, that's of course a little hard to quantify, but the resulting mixture should be slightly more runny than most of my other meatball recipes.

The meat balls were placed one by one on a heated pan with a little margarine as they were shaped - the shaping process is attempted illustrated in the pictures: A portion of meat mixture was taken with a spoon and shaped into a ball by turning in between the hand and the spoon repeatedly until one is happy with the result. Don't overdo it - due to the texture, the balls will deform somewhat on the pan anyway. This is one of the instances when a non-stick pan and a wooden spatula are less useful than other tools.

Served with boiled potatoes and boiled cauliflower this became a meal very much in the Danish tradition. Leftover meatballs are good both on wholegrain dark rye bread and in pita sandwiches together with lettuce, cucumber, tomato..

NB: For an updated recipe, see here.

Hakkebøf (Danish Meatballs 1) & Creamy Potatoes

"Hakkebøf" is 1 of 2 traditional types of Danish meatballs - the other traditional type being "frikadeller", which you can expect to appear on this blog at some point - it's basically just pan fried patties of ground beef. It's a quite simple dish, but can be quite delicious too. It goes well with potatoes and caramelized onion rings, but one of my favorite versions is with creamy potatoes.

Ingredients:
- 6-8 potatoes
- 1 medium onion
- salt, pepper & ground nutmeg
- 1/4 L (1 cup) heavy cream
- 500 g (1 lb) ground beef

The potatoes were sliced thinly, and about half of them were put in an oven-proof tray, then sprinkled with salt, pepper & ground nutmeg. The onion was chopped and added, followed by the rest of the potatoes, more salt, pepper and ground nutmeg on top and at last the cream was poured over. The potatoes went in the oven at 190-200 C (375-400 F) for 40-50 minutes until tender and the cream was nicely browned on top (but without burning the cream too dry!).
The meat was parted into 6 equal portions, each was shaped into a ball using hands, and then flattened somewhat by applying light pressure with a knife. The meatballs were seasoned with salt & pepper and fried in the pan till the meat was done.

Served warm together with some salad on the side.

Bøf Lindstrøm

Although not the traditional or famous Swedish meatballs these meatballs are Swedish nonetheless. This is one of many great eats with pickled beets. Cooking this time by my muse.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 lb (250 g) ground beef
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp capers
- 2 tbsp finely diced pickled beets + more for serving
- 1 egg yolk
- salt and pepper

Using your hands mix everything together and shape into 2 patties, which are fried on the pan.
Serve with e.g. with boiled potatoes, more pieces of pickled beet and pickled cucumber.

Turkey Meatballs

Leaving the kitchen once again to my significant other I got these delicious turkey meatballs.

Ingredients:
- 1 lb (500 g) ground turkey
- 1 egg
- 1 small onion
- 2 tbsp sundried tomatoes
- 1-2 tbsp flour
- salt & pepper

Cut the sundried tomatoes in thin strips, dice the onion (medium fine) and mix everything together. Shape meatballs and fry in the pan.

Went nicely with this cous-cous salad.

Fiery Meatball Garlic Pizza

This was an attempt to recreate my favorite pizza from a certain Kurdish pizzeria I used to visit years ago (and 6000 miles from where I'm living right now).

Ingredients:
- 1 pizza dough
- semolina
- 8 oz (200 g) tomato sauce
- 4 oz (100 g) mozzarella
- 10 oz (250 g) ground beef
- salt
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 serrano peppers (finely diced)

First mix the ground meat with 1 clove crushed garlic, salt, and 1 serrano pepper, shape into small meat balls and fry in a pan. While the meat balls get done roll out the pizza dough with semolina. When the appropriate size place in baking pan on baking paper. Spread out the tomato sauce on the pizza, then add the rest of the garlic (crushed) and the other serrano pepper, the meat balls and finally some mozzarella. Bake at 400 F (200 C) for about 15 minutes.

Turned out pretty good - the taste was good, but I might have like the cheese a little more spread out over the whole pizza.

Murphy Balls v.2

In this redux I aimed for 2 things:
a) better texture so they would fall less apart
b) more interesting spice mix

Ingredients:
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 small onion
- 1/2 red bell pepper
- 2 eggs
- fresh italian parsley
- salt, pepper, crushed dried red chilies & cardamom

Dice the onion and pepper finely, chop the parsley coarsely, mix everything together and shape into small balls. Fry in the pan.

I'm quite happy with the result. Both my initial objectives were met to my satisfaction.
I served them with baked potato wedges and tzatziki.

Köfte

While still in the kitchen my muse also made köfte, e.g. meatballs of ground lamb with a flavour I'd call middle eastern.

Ingredients:
- 500 g (1 lb) ground lamb
- 1 egg
- 1/2 onion
- chopped fresh parsley
- chopped fresh cilantro
- mint (dried or fresh)
- salt and pepper

Dice the onion relatively finely and mix it with the ground lamb, spices and the egg. Form into meatballs and fry on the pan (or grill on skewers).
Served this time with cabbage couscous salad and a bit of hummus.

Murphy Balls v.1

This idea was initiated in my mind some time ago when I was watching an old Eddie Murphy stand-up routine on TV. This is my first attempt at it...

Ingredients:
- 1 small yellow onion
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 egg
- fresh cilantro
- salt & pepper

Chop the onion, the bell pepper and the cilantro finely. Then knead it into the ground beef together with the egg and the salt and pepper. Shape into meat balls and fry in the pan. *

Served with tzatziki and a mixture of brown and wild rice.

* Warning: The particular mixture has some tendency to fall apart, so be careful when turning them.