Meatball Mania

Recipes:

Finnish (not Swedish) meatballs, Merguez Meatballs, Lentil and Freekeh soup.

Meatball Mania, get into it! Meatballs are a quick and easy addition to the holiday buffet table or as my Finnish friends like to call it, the bread and butter table, Voileipäpöytä. Let's get grinding.

I wrote about Finnish Meatballs last year. This time I have updated the recipe with sautéed onions and Wasa bread.



Finnish Meatballs with Pulverized Swedish Crispbread

900g/2lb Chicken ground
14g salt
5g black pepper
2g allspice
1g mace

40g (about 4) Wasa light rye crispbreads
30g onion miced, sautéed in a little butter.
5g Milk powder

120 ml/ 1/2c cold water

Grind spices and add to ground chicken. Grind Wasa and add to mixture. Stir in onion milk powder and cold water.



Form 20g (3/4 oz) portions on lined sheet bake in 400F oven for 10 minutes. I did it in two batches.

Yield: about 50 meatballs. Serve with brown sauce or make Cranberry Sauce (recipe in here)



Freekeh in Beta.

Smoked grains? sign me up. I first learned about Freekeh a few weeks ago when Noëlle Lothamer featured it on her blog simmer down! On first my taste I think it really has the smokiness of bacon. The Oxford Companion to Food reports that it's made by gathering green wheat and roasting them in the fields over an open fire. Then the kernels are shucked and packaged either whole or cracked.



Now I have only gotten one bag of this stuff, but I found a lot of stones in mine. It's like sorting beans. I lay them on a baking sheet lined with parchment, and pick through a little at a time then rinse. Noëlle reported that she didn't have much stone trouble, so I'll have to get some more bags to compare. In the meantime I think the flavor is worth it.

My first test for freekeh is lamb meatballs.



I got lamb shoulder and I had some chicken leftover and I ended up with a pretty good meatball.

Lamb and Chicken Meatball (beta recipe)

2.5 lbs 1130g Ground meat about half lamb half chicken
90 g Freekeh, sorted, not rinsed.
18g salt
2g coriander
1g cumin
1g black pepper

30g garlic minced

120ml Cold water



Process freekeh in spice grinder, then then run the powder though a sieve. Grind salt and spice together. Stir Freekeh and spices into ground meat, then mix garlic and stir in water.

Form 20g (3/4 oz) portions on lined sheet bake in 400F oven for 10 minutes. I did it in three batches.

Yield: about 60 meatballs. Serve with plain yogurt and harissa.

What's really great about meatballs is that they can be made way ahead of time and then frozen. In my own version of what the pros call IQF, I place the meatballs on a baking sheet in a single layer and freeze. Then bag em up.

It's Buffet magic.

In the meantime here's a quick (and supercheap)weeknight meal. Lentil and freekeh soup. This turned out really good:

Dice and sauté medium onion and one carrot in butter. add 4oz small lentils already sorted and rinsed. Add 1 oz of Freekeh already sorted and rinsed. Add 4 cups of chicken stock, 1/2 tsp of salt, two cloves of garlic smashed and peeled, cracked pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer until tender, about 30 mins. Serves 2-4.

Bonne Femme asked me to spend a little less time cooking. I dunno, I promised not to hide in the kitchen, and enjoy the Holidays. You do the same.



Cheers.

Chicken Meatball

Everyone loves meatballs. Yesterday morning, on her way out the door, Bonne Femme asked if I had anything for her to make for dinner.

"Well I have half a chicken how about some meatballs?"

I came up with this recipe for a party last Christmas, but they are good anytime of the year.

Finnish Meatballs - Lihapullat

620g (1lb 5oz) Chicken. That's half a chicken, bones removed skin on.
8 g (1 t) Kosher salt
2 g black pepper
1 g allspice
Pinch of mace or nutmeg
Pinch of caraway seed
2 g mustard seed

5 g dried milk
90 g Onion diced
30 g of bread whole wheat or rye or whatever is laying around, torn up



Dice the chicken. Process salt and spices as needed in spice mill. Mix together all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate for an hour. Run the mixture through meat grinder using the small plate (I use the meat grinder attachment for the Kitchen Aid). If you don't have a grinder, you can do it by hand, read about making sausage without a grinder here. Knead the mixture in the bowl, by hand, until it comes together about one minute.



Preheat the oven to 400F. A portion scoop (that's a #40 pictured above) makes quick work of forming 1 oz meatballs, they are like ice cream scoppers of varying sizes that you can find at restaurant supply stores. Anyway, put em on a cookie sheet, using parchment paper makes things easier, but do whatever you want. Bake them for about 10 minutes.



Let them cool on a rack. I made about 24 1oz meatballs. Once you get the hang of it play around with the seasonings. The dry milk helps retain moisture and the mustard works as an emusifier; together these ingredients make the texture light and juicy.

I decided to have a Finnish themed Christmas Party, a Pikkujoulu, after traveling to the Lapland last summer. I asked my Suomen sister-in-law for a recipe. she said "What do you mean? Just make meatballs."

I said "Ok...What's the difference between Swedish and Finnish meatballs?"

"The Finns don't eat Swedish meatballs."

Okay then.

Kippis.