Ikea Styled Beef Meatballs with Mini Potato Fondants

Sometimes, it is always good to go back to an old recipe and simply try to improve it, and that was the case with my original meatballs dish which I have now sought to get it better.

And not only that, Ikea themselves have recently done the same thing, improving their original recipe. While I am not sure if Ikea's new recipe has gone down well with the general public, I am personally more satisfied with this newer meatball dish of mine.

One of the things that I have sought to change was the simple boiled potatoes that accompanied the original dish. I wanted to do a more tastier potato accompaniment, and decided to do a potato fondant styled variant.

To make the mini potato fondants, take about 3 or 4 new potatoes and cube it. I normally leave the skin on as I prefer having it this way, but you can peel the potato skins before cutting them if you prefer to have them off.

In a pan or skillet, melt about 200g of butter. The secret to this dish is the generous amount of butter for the potatoes to cook in without burning the butter. Once the butter begins to melt, add in the potatoes.

Keep turning or tossing the butters to get a nice caramelization around the potatoes. After about 10 minutes or so, or once the butter starts to burn, add in about a cup of chicken stock to prevent the burning of the butter.

Let the potatoes cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, and then put the entire pan into an oven at 180 deg C for another 5 minutes and the potatoes will be done. They should be aromatic and have a nice creamy and buttery texture and look golden and crisp on the outside.

For the beef meatballs, take about 300 grams of minced beef and add in some olive oil, parmesan cheese, one egg, spring onion (or chopped garlic) and some seasoning of salt and pepper. Mix well and make sure to taste.

Generally, before cooking all the meatballs, I will tend to test one by cooking in a pan to see if my seasoning is right so you can still adjust the seasoning in the beef mixture before you roll them into balls.

There are 2 ways you can cook the meatballs. The simplest way is to just cook them in a pan for about  a couple of minutes. The other way is to oven the meatballs at about 200 deg C for about 5 minutes or until they are fully cooked.

Generally, the oven method is a bit tastier in my opinion but you have to make sure you preheat the oven before putting in the meatballs. The pan method tends to lose a bit more moisture.

Finally, to do a sauce, simply saute some chopped onion with butter until they are soft and sweet. Add in some beef stock and red wine and let it reduce by half. Add in some butter and cream and strain the mixture for a clear sauce.

Once the meatballs are done, simply plate the meatballs and the potatoes and garnish with some greens and add in the beef sauce.

In my view, this home cooked version is way better than what you get at Ikea. Go try it!