Swedish Meatball Smash Burgers

Inspired by a recent trip to Ikea, these are meatballs, but with a difference... they're smashed into Swedish meatburgers (try saying that after a couple of Swedish vodkas).

1 hour cook

Serves 4

Hugh Woodward

Ingredients

Meatballs:

100mlmilk

80glight toasted white bread

1 oniondiced and softened in 1 tbsp butter

400gpork mince

400gbeef mince

1 egg

1/2 tspallspice

1 tbspflaked sea salt

Potato rostis:

4 largeMaris Piper potatoes

100gghee (or vegetable oil)

Cute little salad:

4sliced shallots

1 tbspcapers

30gparsley leaves

half a lemonsqueezed

big glugolive oil

Other bits:

4 xburger buns

to tastemayonnaise

to tastelingonberry jam

compulsoryhot gravy, to dunk

These juicy yet also crispy little burgers capture everything that is great about the Swedish classic dish, but in a neater handheld form. They even have a little rosti to represent the fries you (obviously) should be choosing with your eight plus meatballs in the Ikea canteen.

Method

In a bowl, soak the bread with the milk. Mix together with all the other ingredients for the meatballs until completely combined - don't worry about over-mixing as these have a bouncy, sausage like texture. Leave to cool then divide into 100g balls. You'll have some left over to eat as actual Swedish meatballs.

Grate the potato into a tea towel and squeeze out the weird potato liquid. Heat the ghee in a frying pan and make loose little piles of the potato right there in the hot ghee - squash them flat with a spatula and cook gently until really crisp and golden. Flip and repeat, then drain.

In another non stick frying pan, squash the meatballs into some hot vegetable oil like a smash burger. Flip when you have some nice caramelised bits.

Loosely whisk all the salad ingredients together.

Assemble the burg - toasted buns, mayo, rosti, meatball patties, jam, cute little salad.

Serve with/dunk in gravy.