How to Make Decadent Swedish Meatballs that Put IKEA’s to Shame
- I used to like, hate anchovies as a kid.
- See I was the kid thatbrought anchovies to school,
and had it with a slice of bread, so.
Not many friends at my lunch table.
(laughing)
(upbeat music)
Chef Danny at the ArthurJ in Manhattan Beach.
How's it going?
- Going well.
- So this is somethingthat I grew up eating
every Christmas.- Really?
- Love Swedish meatballs,
even though I'm Norwegian.
The Swedes got one thing right.
- Oh absolutely.
You might end up giving me some tips
on how to make this a little bit better
by the end of the show.
- Oh, I doubt that.
(laughing)
Swedish meatballs have avery distinctive flavor,
and what does that come from?
- Well, that comes fromwhat we like to call
the Christmas spices.
Right here you can see we have here
some freshly grated nutmeg,
and then the allspiceis a little bit darker,
that's the one right here in the center
and we make sure wegrind that up really fine
by using a spice grinder.
- And then that's just like,
like really finely ground black pepper?
- Correct.- Okay, great.
How do we get these meatballs together?
- Well one of the things
we first start with are ground meats.
We use ground beef, pork, and veal.
If we used all beef,they might be too dry,
it might be too strong a flavor.
If we didn't use the pork,
we wouldn't have the fat content
that we really need for these meatballs
to have the right texture.
- Great.- I have,
ahead of time, added a little bit of milk
into two ounces of panko bread crumbs.
- And you don't want touse dried bread crumbs,
you want to rehydratethem, so you're not, like,
drying out your meatballs.
- Exactly right,
because what's going to end up happening
is if you have dry pockets of bread crumb,
it's not gonna bind.
It's actually gonna make the meatballs
kind of split apart.
We'll add two egg yolks,
then we'll add our spices,
the black pepper,
the allspice and the nutmeg.
And we're gonna addsome fresh yellow onion.
That's gonna add also flavor and moisture.
There's no other way todo this but to really
get your hands dirty in there.- Yeah.
- So I'm just gonna goahead and get in there.
Really, this probablythe best kitchen tool
that exists is just your hands.
Alright, that looks pretty good.
I think we're there.
So I know you've got alittle bit of history
making meatballs,
so we're gonna see whereyou're at with that.
Alright?- Alright, yeah.
- I'm gonna give you a little bit of oil.
It'll give it a smoothertexture on the outside
and it won't stick to your fingers as bad.
- Okay.
- So just rub that oil right there
in the palm of your hand.
We're gonna start a little roll, good.
Now like you're throwin' a fast ball,
right there between those two fingers,
and slap it into the palm of your hand.
Now what this is doin'
is it's really compacting that meat.
And then you roll it.
Good, good, good, good, good.
You should have something
kind of like that.
Hey, that's pretty good, that's great!
Now we just gotta makea thousand of these.
(laughing)
- Got a wedding coming up.
(laughing)
- Alright, let's make this pan hot,
'cause we gotta make the gravy.
- Okay.- Um-huh.
You can tell when a pan's ready
because you see a little shimmer
in the oil.- Okay.
- We're gonna give 'em another final roll
'cause the tend toflatten out on the bottom
once they've been resting.
Put it right back there.
Nice little sizzle, you can hear it.
We want them to form a nice golden brown.
In fact, I'm gonna putin a little bit more oil.
And you can already smell them.
Those spices are warming up in the pan,
that oil is already havinga nice little effect
on the ground meat.- Um-hm.
- This is where the flavor starts forming.
I don't wanna move them around,
but I am gonna move that fat a little bit.
So you see all thisstuff forming in the pan?
- Yeah.
- All this beautiful brown bits,
it's all the stuff comingoff of the meatballs
and that's gonna go into our gravy.
You see I'm basting the meatballs
just a little bit.- Yeah.
Start getting that flavor into them
- Exactly right.
That's looking great.- Once you get
to that color right there,
- Yeah, that's right.- That's the color
you're lookin' for,- Oh absolutely.
- that rich brown.
- This would make Grandmaproud right there,
know what I'm sayin'?(laughing)
It's been about 10 minutes
of cooking.- Yeah, I'd say so,
- And so now you want to pull 'em out
and reserve them, right?- Exactly right.
So we're gonna set 'em aside,
because in this pan
where all the flavor's developed,
we're gonna use that asthe basis of our gravy.
And one of the first things
that we start off with in the pan
is anchovies.
And there's just somethingfunky that anchovies
or preserved herring
really lend to a dish.
You know, the next thing we're gonna do
is add just a little pinch more of salt.
- Okay.
- I like to throw butter,because I'm a chef
and that's kind of what we do,
is add a little bit of butter
and I'm gonna also add some blue cheese.
We use beautiful Mycella blue cheese,
it's from Denmark.
So this is a nice ingredient that we use
to really make our gravya little bit different
and stand out.
- Where did you develop this recipe from?
- You know, one of my first jobs
was with a Swedish chef
and this is one of the things
that we would make as a special
for our guests.- What, the muppett?
- Not the muppet!- Oh, yeah.
- Though he would've been cool
but hard to understand.
But, it's got all those, that basis
of a traditional Swedish meatball.
We've already toasted theflour off a little bit,
so that also adds a littlebit of toasted nutty flavor
to the dish.- Yeah.
- See how it soaks up all that fat,
the little remaining bit of fat?
And you see the coloralready of the flour.
If we hadn't toasted the flour,
it would make this a lot lighter in color.
- Almost more like achicken gravy, where that's
a little bit lighter.- Yeah, exactly right.
- Here we have some veal stock
that we make at the restaurant,
and as I'm pouring itin, I'm gonna whisk it
just break up those bits of flour.
- It's already startingto get a nice gloss to it,
a nice body to it.
- It's lookin' good.
We'll add a little bit ofcream and milk here, too.
- Ah, that much?- Yeah.
Oh, dude, I like that color.
You can see,- You can see,
- see it looks good.- that's a good color, yeah.
- Now is the point wherewe're gonna reintroduce
the meatballs in there.
All the fat,
all the flavor that weput into the meatballs,
is now gonna seep intothat gravy that we made.
So we're gonna set these aside.
In the meantime, I'm gonna show you
the mashed potatoes that we serve with it.
Yukon Gold potatoes, whichwe boil ahead of time,
and then equal partsbutter to potato by weight.
Just like Mom
used to make it, right?(laughing)
So those are looking pretty good.
- Yup.
- The meatballs, by now, are cooked
all the way through.- Yeah.
- They're lookin' really good.
So potatoes look good,
I'll give them one more little swirl
just to incorporate any fat
that may have tried to separate.
Look at the way they sit on there.
And that's what we're lookin' for.
Put some of the meatballs over here.
That's the way we plate at the restaurant.
Nice portion of gravy over the top.
There we go.
We're gonna top it off
with Chef David's family recipe of
cranberry-kumquat compote.
Sometimes we would pair Swedish meatballs
with lingonberry
or some other kind of fruit preserve.
Last thing we do is alittle bit of fresh chives.
And again, just right on top of each bite.
And there you go,
the Arthur J's Swedish meatballs.
- Reminds me of my childhood.
(laughing)
Going right in for it.
You get in there, Chef.
- Alright.
(upbeat music)
No good?
(laughing)- Sorry, I got to go.
I love the allspice in it.
This tastes like what I'vebeen having my whole life.
- I just think it's oneof those warming spices,
I mean it's very soul-satisfying.
- Um-hmm, yeah.
- But there just work sowell with these meatballs
and it's a throwback.
It's traditional, with afew personalized touches
of our own.
- I know it's Southern California
and it's sunny outside,
but it feels like homeat Christmas right now.
- Best of both worlds.
(laughing)
(upbeat music)
Chef Danny at The Arthur J in Manhattan Beach, Calif., shows Playboy senior editor Jeremy Repanich how to make decadent Swedish meatballs. It all begins with the right combination of ground beef, pork and veal mixed with the spices that give the balls their very distinct flavor: freshly grated nutmeg, allspice, and finely ground black pepper. Chef Danny uses the pan with all the leftover fat and juices to make the gravy, which requires anchovies, butter, Mycella blue cheese, toasted flour and veal stock. He rounds out the plate with yukon gold mashed potatoes and a cranberry kumquat compote. For more recipes, videos and tips from experts visit Playboy's Nightlife site: http://ply.by/lodRb9 Executive Producer: Brian Berkowitz Producer: Jeremy Repanich Host: Jeremy Repanich Subscribe to Indulgence: http://ply.by/PCqbFz Chef Tips: http://ply.by/wYI3Yc Let's Get Fat: http://ply.by/AZljDv Bartender Confidential: http://ply.by/pvO9i1 FoodSteez on Indulgence: http://ply.by/iXnHLx Tasting Notes: http://ply.by/dWaFbo How To: http://ply.by/2M4XTw Bars and Cocktails: http://ply.by/xZBoGA Eat This Now: http://ply.by/iMkcoL Follow Indulgence on Facebook: http://ply.by/RWkqSe