While everyone wanted tacos on Cinco de Mayo, we wanted Swedish meatballs. You can have both. We did.
Swedish meatball tacos. Savory, spicy, with a hint of pickle. Two worlds, one bite.
Here’s the recipe.
Try to get handmade tortillas, corn or flour, your choice.
Worth it.
What you need:
2 slices fresh white bread
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons clarified butter, divided
1/2 cup pureed onion (my secret step to perfection)
A pinch plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 pound ground chuck
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Limes
Fennel
Red cabbage
Dill
Persian cucumbers (English or take the seeds out of a traditional cucumber if you cant find them)
Lingonberry jam
Sour cream
Kewpie Mayo. You will never use another mayo again.
Sriracha hot sauce
Red wine vinegar
Preheat the oven to 400.
Meatballs:
Tear the bread into pieces and place in food processor or blender, blend until fine crumbs, place in bowl of stand mixer with milk.
In a small saute pan over medium heat, melt all of the butter. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sweat until the onions are soft. Remove from the heat and put in bowl with the breadcrumbs.
Combine the rest of the ingredients and beat on medium speed for 5 minutes. The smoother the mixture the better, this is a personality trait of the Swedish meatball and separates it from the texture of the Italians.
With a medium size ice cream scooper (smaller than standard) scoop meatballs onto silicone mats on cookie sheets. Bake at 400 for 25 minutes.
Mix 1 TB mayo to 1 tsp Sriracha (to taste, I like it hot)
In a mandolin or with a super sharp knife shave the fennel in thin slices, chop dill and hand toss with the juice from 1 lime, a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.
Slice the red cabbage as thinly as you sliced the fennel and cucumbers.
Thinly slice the cucumbers, as many as you’d like. Throw those in the vinegar in a small bowl for a quick pickle. If they are Persian or English no need to peel. Traditional, peel those guys.
Remove meatballs from the oven.
Smear a bit of sour cream on the base of the tortilla, the Sriracha mayo, 2 meatballs, on one side put about 2 tsp of lingonberry jam (it’s getting weird, but good), then some fennel dill slaw, red cabbage, and pickles.
So.
Good.