Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients

• 60g panko bread crumbs
• 120ml warm milk
• 55g unsalted butter
• 6g kosher salt, more as needed
• 1 large onion, diced
• 15ml brandy
• 12g all-purpose flour
• 240ml beef or chicken broth, low sodium or homemade
• 120ml heavy cream
• 5ml Dijon mustard, optional
• 450g ground beef
• 450g ground pork
• 2 large eggs
• 2 garlic cloves, grated on a Microplane or minced
• 1g freshly ground black pepper
• 1g allspice
• 0.5g ground ginger
• 0.5g nutmeg
• Pinch cloves
• Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed for drizzling
• Chopped fresh parsley or dill, for garnish

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, soak bread crumbs in warm milk while you prepare the onions.
2. Melt 15 g butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onions and a pinch of salt and cook until pale golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer half the onions to a large bowl and set aside.
3. Add the brandy to the onions in the skillet and ignite it with a long match or igniter. Let the flame die down, then melt in the remaining 40 g butter. Sprinkle in the flour and sauté until browned, about 3 minutes. Whisk in the broth, cream and 1.5 g salt and simmer until reduced to a sauce, about 5 minutes. Add mustard if desired and adjust the salt.
4. Add the remaining 4.5 g salt, soaked bread crumbs, beef, pork, eggs, garlic, pepper, allspice, ginger, nutmeg and cloves to the reserved onions. Roll into 2.5 cm balls of about 30 g each and arrange on one or two rimmed baking sheets.
5. Heat broiler. Drizzle meatballs with oil. Broil meatballs, switching pans' positions if using more than one so they both get close to the broiler, until well browned all over, 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with gravy, garnished with herbs.