Mom's meatballs

In Norwegian colloquial language, "mom's meatballs" is a term for everything that is good about home. When you come home to your parents, you'll get everything you're used to from you were a kid, and of course, nobody makes meatballs like your own mom. As you may know, the term "Swedish meatballs" can mean something else as well, but I won't discuss that right now.

Anyway, since I came to Liverpool, I've tried a couple of times to make meatballs myself. And although they maybe didn't come up to mom's standards, I thought the were quite good.

Next to "Fårikål", a dish basically made out of cabbage, mutton and pepper, meatballs is top contender for the title of Norwegian national dish. They have a top position in Sweden as well, and maybe the Swedish ones are more famous abroad than the Norwegian ones.

The meatballs are traditionally served with boiled potatoes, pea-stew, cowberries and brown sauce, but they will go well with a whole host of other side dishes. I have added a recipe for brown sauce below, but try them out with a red sauce and pasta as well. The recipes will serve 4 portions.

Here are the recipes:

Meatballs recipe

600g minced beef
2 eggs
2 tbs of flour
1/2 dl milk
1 finely chopped onion
3 chopped cloves of garlic
1 ts (teaspoon) salt
1 ts pepper
1/2 ts cumin
1/2 ts basil
1 ts oregano
2 ts rosemary

Mix all the ingredients except flour and milk in a large bowl. Add milk and flour alternatively, a little at a time. Roll small golfball-sized balls. Fry in olive oil on medium heat until well done.

Brown sauce recipe

2 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
1/2 l beef stock
1/2 ts soy sauce
salt
pepper

Melt and fry butter in a frying pan (preferrably an iron pan) until well browned. Add the stock, a little at a time, and stir in between. Let simmer for about 10 minutes. Add soy sauce for colour, and salt and pepper according to taste.

Enjoy!