Swedish Meatballs

This recipe was found online.  I did modify it slightly by adding extra sour cream and some Worcestershire sauce.  You could add slightly more than the 1/4 tsp. of allspice and nutmeg and these would taste even better.  I used my medium disher to portion out the meat and got 40 meatballs.  Next time, I'll make them smaller so the flavor of the sauce will cook into the meat better.

This made a lot of meatballs.  I packaged the meatballs and sauce for the freezer and have 9 meals prepped.  I will cook the noodles as I defrost the packages.

SWEDISH MEATBALLS

Serves 6-8

2 t. olive oil, divided

1 finely diced onion

1 lb. ground beef

1 lb. ground pork

½ c. Panko breadcrumbs

2 egg yolks

¼ tsp. allspice

¼ tsp. nutmeg

Salt and pepper

SAUCE:

¼ c. butter, melted

1/3 c. flour

4 c. beef broth

¾ c. sour cream

Heat 1 T. oil in skillet. 

Add onions and cook until clear.

Combine onions with meatball ingredients and mix well.

Shape into meatballs.  Brown meatballs in skillet with remaining 1 T. of oil.

Make roux with melted butter and flour.  Cook 1-2 minutes.  Whisk in beef broth.  Bring to a boil.  Stir in sour cream.  Add meatballs to sauce and simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve over noodles.

I think I’ll add a little extra nutmeg and allspice.  For the broth, I used 2 cans of Campbell’s consommé and added enough water to make 4 cups.  I also added extra sour cream and some Worcestershire sauce.

Gyro Meat and Tzatziki Sauce

Gyro sandwiches are one of my favorites and no one in our town makes them.  Today on Facebook an article popped up with a recipe to make your own gyro meat as well as the Tzatziki sauce to dress the sandwich.

Most traditional gyro sandwich meat includes ground lamb, which you're not going to find in rural Oklahoma.  The recipe said you could use any combination of beef, poultry, and pork so I ground up some pork loin chops and mixed it with 80/20 ground beef.  I used the more fatty ground beef to add flavor.

To press the meat after baking, I used a skillet filled with unopened cans  of vegetables.

The Tzatziki sauce recipe needs to be tweaked a little.  I used plain yogurt rather than Greek since I had it on hand, and dried dill since fresh wasn't available.  English cucumbers don't have the same flavor as a regular salad cucumber.  In my opinion, use a regular one!

GYRO SANDWICH MEAT

1 lb. ground beef—I used 80/20

1 lb. ground pork

1 small red onion, finely diced

6 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 tsp. ground marjoram—I used dried

2 tsp. dried rosemary

2 tsp. dried oregano—I used ground

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. pepper

Put onion and garlic into food processor and process until a fine mince.

Using a stand mixer, combine the meat, onion, garlic and spices.  Mix until meat gets a paste like consistency. Press meat into a greased loaf pan.

Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 1 hour or until internal temperature reaches 175-180°

Remove from pan to drain off grease.  Wrap in foil and place a weight on top to compress the meat.  Let stand at least 30 minutes.

TZATZIKI SAUCE

½ English cucumber, finely diced

16 oz. Greek yogurt

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

1/3 c. fresh dill

1 ½ tsp. lemon juice

Salt and pepper

Squeeze excess moisture out of cucumber.  Combine with other ingredients and chill at least one hour.