I don’t know what it is about this dish, but it is absolutely delicious. I have made several different types of homemade meatballs in the past, but these with the cream sauce are by far my favorite. These are like a little piece of heaven.

When I first started making these meatballs I would always buy the prepackaged Swedish meatball sauce mix from IKEA, because it was easy and it was good. Then, one night I had all the meatballs made and ready to cook and realized that I was out of the sauce packets. First I freaked out and completely panicked, then I pulled myself together and realized that if I just put my mind to it, I could make up my own sauce. I make a sauce similar to what I wanted that I serve over my macadamia encrusted chicken, so I just started with that. I have to say, there is just something about this sauce, with the touch of soy sauce added to a beef stock and heavy cream, it is just amazing.

I know I have mentioned this before, but over the last two years we have almost completely given up going out to eat. First of all, it can put a real strain on your budget, and you can’t ever really be sure what you are getting when you don’t cook it yourself. When we went out to eat a lot, we usually went to the same places and ordered the same things off the menu at each place. Every so often, as I get a craving for one of those items, I just try to figure out how I can recreate it and make it at home.

If you have any suggestions for meals you have eaten out that you would like to make yourself at home, let me know and we can try to figure it out. Or, if you have something that you love and have already figured out how to make at home, I would love to hear about it.

This recipe will make between 36-40 meatballs using a medium size scooper. If you don’t need that many you can easily half the recipe or just make them all and then freeze what you don’t eat right away. Or, the third option is to use the leftovers to create some new masterpieces, like my husband did. These options are at the end of the recipes.

**This recipe can be gluten free if you use a gluten free soy sauce and flour. Since Panko is not gluten free, you can substitute by using Rice Chex cereal. Just put as much of the cereal as you need in a Ziploc baggie, the smash it with a rolling pin or meat tenderizer. Voila! Gluten free Panko substitute.

Swedish Meatballs with Cream Sauce

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 egg, beaten
• ½ cup onion, finely diced
• ½ – ¾ cup panko bread crumbs (or substitute)
• 1 medium potato
• heavy cream
• 4-5 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste

Scrub a medium size potato, peel it and slice it up. Put it in a small saucepan and just cover it with water. Boil it over medium heat until it is soft enough to mash. Drain off the water, put it in a bowl and mash it up, if you need to, you can add a touch of heavy cream to it to get it the right consistency of mashed potato. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl add in all of your ingredients, then combine the mixture well with your hands, until it is completely mixed up and good consistency for meatballs.  Using a medium size scooper scoop out mixture and roll into balls with your hands. Set aside

In a large skillet, over medium high heat, melt butter and oil. When pan is hot and butter is bubbling, add all the meatballs to the pan. You will cook them 5 minutes on one side and then flip them all over and cook them 5 minutes on the other side.

Turn the heat down to medium and put a lid on your pan. This will allow them to steam cook for the remaining time. Cook them, covered, for an additional 8 minutes, or until they are cooked through.  Cooking them this way gives you a nice crispy outer coating, with a nice moist center.

Cream Sauce

• 1 cup cream
• 1.5 teaspoons beef Better Than Bouillon, mixed with 1 cup water (you can substitute with 1 cup of beef stock, but the BTB is much better)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons white or gluten free flour
• salt and pepper, to taste

Combine cream, beef stock and soy sauce into a pourable mixing cup. In a medium size saucepan, over medium heat, add your butter, salt and pepper. Once butter is melted, add in your flour. Mix this up well with a whisk, until you have created a roux.

Slowly pour in the liquid mixture, whisking continuously until the liquid is combined and you have a smooth creamy consistency.

I serve these meatballs with egg noodles. Just cook the noodles according to package directions, then add the meatballs and the sauce over them.

Since we always have leftover meatballs, we are always coming up with creative ways to use them up. These are two of our favorite ways.

The first is making them into mini-sandwiches. You take slices of a French bread loaf, butter them, put them in the toaster oven and toast them. To one slice of bread, add a couple of meatballs and some sauce, then top with the other piece of bread.

These are seriously good. Really.

This morning we had the leftovers for breakfast. We toasted some bread and topped them with meatballs and sauce and served that with a side of egg over-medium. YUM!