If you haven’t heard about Wisconsin Whisk yet, its time you do – head over to the website and check it out. Whisk is an exciting collaboration that brings Wisconsin food bloggers together. We are at almost 40 member blogs, some of us even had the opportunity to meet in person last month. I knew about some of the blogs, but had no idea there were so many more of us. It’s been really fun discovering and visiting all the blogs, learning about their authors and their food. I would encourage you to follow these blogs, like them on Facebook and keep connected. The same way we think about supporting local business, why not support our local food blogger when you are looking for a recipe?

This post is our first fun collaboration, a recipe swap called “All Whisked Up” The challenge was to find an old post from a fellow food blogger and recreate it, picture it, enjoy it and of course share it!

I was paired with T.J. from All Food Considered, and as I headed to T.J.’s blog I started to feel a little bit intimidated as he has some amazing plating skills. I also noticed how many similarities we have, not only the passion we have for cooking and the food we prepare, but we use a lot of the same ingredients and spices and even have some of the same recipes. T.J. is an engineer turned cook, and I can definitely tell when he is talking about measuring that his engineer mind comes into play. This is very apparent looking at his exquisitely calculated and measured baked goods. What is also fun about All Food Considered is that T.J. has culinary lessons that can come very handy for both aspiring and veteran home chefs. T.J. likes competition, he has participated in a number of food competitions and coming up in November he will be competing in the 2015 World Food Championship against 50 of the world’s best dessert chefs in Florida to bring home a trophy and a $10,000 prize – Good luck T.J. !

For the recipe I chose Swedish meatballs, something that I rarely make but my family adores. I followed his recipe to a t, didn’t change anything. I substituted the bread crumbs from 3 slices of bread with 1/2 cup of panko (Japanese bread crumbs) because I had them, so in turn I really didn’t change anything. I thought the sauce was going to be a lot and it was. If you are serving the meatballs with pasta then it would be ok, I made polenta (I know, not very Swedish), because my kids love polenta and I figured it would be a good starchy bed for all the sauce. The Swedish Meatballs were absolutely delicious! My family loved them, I would definitely keep this recipe in my repertoire and will be making it for a dinner party. This is a very hearty recipe, full of flavor. The meatballs were decadent, moist and perfectly seasoned. If you are ready to get all whisked-up let’s get cooking!

Ingredients:
(makes about 24 meatballs)

For the Meatballs:
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 white onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 pound ground chuck
1 pound ground pork
3 large egg yolks
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

For the Sauce:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups low-sodium beef broth
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper, to taste

Place the bread crumbs in a bowl, add milk, and reserve.  In a large sauté pan over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter.  Add the onion and garlic and season with kosher salt.  Cook until fragrant and transparent, about 5 minutes, remove from the heat; reserve.

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

In a stand mixer bowl, combine the bread crumbs and milk mixture, ground chuck and ground pork, egg yolks, Kosher salt, black pepper, allspice, nutmeg, and onion and garlic mixture.  Mix on low speed just until everything is combined.  Line a rimmed half sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat.  Using a small scoop, form into meatballs, place them in the prepare sheet pan leaving enough space.  Bake for 25 minutes, or until an internal temperature of 160° F is achieved.

I used a small ice cream scoop to make the meatballs and this recipe yield 24 meatballs.

For the sauce, melt your remaining butter.  Whisk in the flour and stir for one minute to remove the raw flour taste.  Add one-third of the beef broth and whisk for a minute until the lumps are gone.  Add another third of the beef broth and whisk.  Add the remaining beef broth, turn the heat to medium-high, and whisk until the gravy starts boiling.  Remove from heat and whisk in the cream and sour cream.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and freshly ground nutmeg.  Add the meatballs to the gravy and serve over pasta, or your favorite starch.

Remember to visit Whisk and of course head over to All Food Considered to follow T.J.’s journey

To see other All Whisked Up recipes click the blue button below