Finnish Meatballs
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. ground white pepper
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 small to med. onion
- 1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
- Real butter (approx 1 1/2 tbsp.)
Pour the cream into a bowl with the oatmeal before you start making meatballs so the oatmeal softens while you are chopping the onion. Add salt & pepper to the oatmeal mixture too.
Slice off about a third of the onion to go in meatballs themselves. Chop really fine. Take the other part of onion and slice it into slices and put into the pot you are going to simmer your meatballs in. Cover the onions with water just until covered a couple of inches and turn on to simmer while frying meatballs.
Put hamburger in mixing bowl and add onion and oatmeal mixture and mix well with fork until it looks thoroughly mixed together.
Take about 1 tbsp. of butter and put in frying pan and turn to about med. high. Let the pan get hot and the butter a little browned. You want to brown the meatballs at a pretty high temp but since they burn faster at the higher temp you have to watch them carefully and may have to turn the heat down a bit. The browner you get the meatballs the better they taste! Mine almost look burnt when I finish frying them but when you simmer them for half an hour in the water you can't tell they have been burnt at all. Fry them in 2 batches and the second batch you will probably have enough grease left that you won't need more butter. Put on paper towels to drain after browning for about 8 minutes. Turn them at least a couple of times or as much as you want them brown. Take the drained meatballs and put in your pot with the onions. Pour any leftover grease out of your frying pan and discard grease. Add some water to the frying pan and scrape up any pan drippings. Pour this over meatballs. If you don't have enough water to just cover them, add some from faucet. Try to use as small a pot as the meatballs will fit in as they have more flavor with less broth. Add enough salt to the simmering water to taste salty enough. Simmer for 30 minutes and serve over salted boiled potatoes.