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).

Done in 1 hour

Serves 4

Dish by 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.

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Hugh Woodward

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Hugh's culinary life began aged 14 when he cooked spaghetti hoop burritos to impress girls. Since then his colourful career has taken him to performing in Skegness, making cheese in Peckham, running a wine bar on Columbia Road and reluctantly working in a (briefly) Michelin Starred restaurant. He likes fish, things cooked on charcoal, cheap dinners and London's rich cultural tapestry of food shops. When he's not cooking or eating he can be found mudlarking by the river Thames, buying bits in flea markets and hanging out with his cat Keith.