Not everything is about Sichuan food; sometimes you just gotta make dinner.
One thing I really enjoy as a cook is finding ways to use things that are in my refrigerator. Case in point: tonight I had some ground beef that needed to get used, some ground pork, and a bag of sauerkraut left over from New Year’s Day. I started thinking about meatballs and wondered if anyone had ever made a meatball with the sauerkraut on the inside. Imagine it: salty, sour cabbage getting seared right along with the meat to form sauerbark. That’s a made-up name, but it sounds cool.
I made it like sauerbark meets Swedish meatballs, merging two countries in the process, using whatever I had in the kitchen. I had no idea how it would turn out, but as it happens, it was delicious. It just goes to show you that trying something you’ve never heard of can be a win.
Let’s get to the recipe.
Sauerkraut Swedish Meatballs
Equipment
- large skillet
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/2 lb ground pork
- 1 cup sauerkraut rinsed, drained, and finely minced
- 3 cloves garlic crushed and finely minced
- 1/2 med onion finely minced
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1 egg beaten
- kosher salt
- 2 tbsp bacon grease
Sauce
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 cup beef broth
- 2 tbsp dry sherry
- 1/2 tsp mace
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp corn starch or potato starch
- 2 tbsp water
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, place the ground meats and salt them with kosher salt
- Rinse and dry the sauerkraut thoroughly
- Mince the sauerkraut into very small pieces and add to the meat
- Mince the garlic and onion and add to the meat
- Mix the meat, onion, sauerkraut, and garlic until the mix is very smooth, and place in the freezer for 20 minutes
- While the meat chills, in a saucier, heat the vegetable and beef broth along with the sherry and reduce by half.
- Remove the meat from the freezer, and using your hands, make about 1-inch diameter meatballs
- In the skillet, heat bacon grease, or use rashers of bacon fat so that the bottom of the skillet is well covered
- Fry the meatballs on medium heat, turning often until they are firm
- While the meatballs are cooking, add the dijon mustard, mace, and cinnamon to the stock and stir it all in. Also, add warm water in a small bowl to the starch.
- Add the stock to the meatballs, reduce until thick enough to form a gravy, then add the starch slurry
- Mix it all up, covering the meatballs with the sauce
- Serve over long grain rice
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