British food-lover Keef shows you how to cook amazing food with easy to follow recipes and videos. So stop wasting your time and money on takeaways or supermarket ready meals, and Get Cooking!
Bit of an odd recipe this - it's more or less identical to one IKEA published in April 2020, but in my own words and without the flatpack cartoon pics. The meatballs and sauce are really easy to make, and very tasty - well worth trying. You should serve it with a dollop of lingonberry jam - available from IKEA in normal times, but you can substitute cranberry sauce/jam, or blackberry/blueberry jam, anything sharp.
Make the Meatballs
Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk for 10-15 minutes. Peel the onion and chop it as finely as you can. Peel and mince the garlic. Mix the minced meats, onions, garlic and breadcrumbs, salt and pepper together in a large bowl. Blend in the egg. The meatballs should have quite a smooth texture, almost like pâté, so squeeze it right well with your hands, or whizz it in the bowl with a stick blender. Form your meat mixture into small balls. The actual IKEA ones are 19 grams each, but I make mine 25 grams (1 ounce). You can weigh them if you want, or just guess. When you've rolled out all your meatballs, place them in the fridge to chill for 2 hours.
Cook the Meatballs
Heat your oven to 160°C (320°F) for a fan oven, 180°C (356°F) conventional, gas 4. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a big frying pan on medium heat. Add meatballs and swizz them around to get them browned all over. You might want to do this in 2-3 batches so the balls have plenty of room to move in. Once you have all the balls browned, place them in an ovenproof dish (or use the pan if that's ovenproof) and finish off cooking in the oven for about 30 minutes.
Make the Sauce/Gravy
Melt the butter in a small saucepan on medium heat. Sift in the flour, stirring well as you add it until you have a smooth paste. Let this cook for a couple of minutes, then add the beef stock and stir it in thoroughly. Add the veg stock and the cream. Mix these all thoroughly, then add the soy sauce and the mustard and let the sauce cook until it is a bit thicker than paint. Set aside until needed.