Finnish meatballs with horseradish sauce & cranberry compote

This recipe comes from my KitchenAid cookbook and it tastes like a trip to Ikea. 

It's time consuming so allocate a couple of hours for it.

Serves: 6 persons.

Ingredients:

• 50g of stale white bread (there is never stale bread in our house so I just used fresh bread)
• 150ml milk
• 500g minced beef
• 500g minced pork
• 1 red onion
• 1 egg
• 1½ tsp ground allspice (see method point 3 before buying)
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 60g butter
• 1 tbsp flour
• 400ml chicken stock
• 150ml soured cream
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp horseradish sauce
• salt & pepper to taste
• cranberry compote

Method:

1. Remove the crusts from the bread and soak the bread in the milk for 30 min until the bread has absorbed all the milk. I actually used the crusts, 50g of it, because I misread the recipe but I wouldn't necessarily advise to remove the crusts from the bread. Just use it all! I also mixed and chopped the bread with a spoon regularly throughout the 30 min to make sure it would be similar to 'minced' like the meat. I guess that if you take the crusts you won't need to do this.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Mince the onion.
   
   
   
   
3. Allspice is not a very commonly used spice so it may not be worth buying it just for this recipe. I actually forgot I had bought some last Winter for pickling (time to tidy up the cupboards!) and used the alternative version. Allspice can be substituted by equal quantities of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. The recipe asks for 1½ tsp total so I added ½ tsp of each.
   
   
   
   
4. Add the onion to a bowl with the meat, allspice and soaked bread. Season to taste and then mix until well blended. Chill for 20 min. Get your hands in and mix really well. The more you squeeze and mash the mince, the more tender the meatballs will be.
   
5. Shape the meat mixture into balls the size of walnuts. Heat the oil and 40g of butter in a large frying pan and fry the meatballs in batches until golden brown and cooked through. I fried the meatballs on one side, them turned them to the other side and covered the frying pan with a lid, letting them cook covered for a few minutes. This way you will be able to get a cooked through meatball with a golden outside without burning or undercooking it.
   
   
   
   
6. When all the meatballs are cooked, pour away most of the fat. I actually cleaned the 'grime' from the bottom of the pan as I did not want that added to the sauce. There was only a bit of the oil left.
   
   
   
   
7. Add the remaining butter to the frying pan and stir in the flour. Cook for 2 min until the roux is golden, then stir in the stock until you obtain a smooth sauce.
   
8. Add the soured cream, lemon zest and horseradish sauce and mix well.
   
   
   
   
9. Return the meatballs to the pan, coat with the sauce and let them warm up a bit.
   
10. Serve with cranberry compote and boiled rice.