The best meatballs ever from the Librije, a Dutch 2 Michelin star restaurant.

Serves: 8 | Preparation: 10 min | Resting time 20 min | Cooking time: 45 min

Who connected us?!  I founds this recipe via facebook, it was posted as a bit of a joke. “Michelin star restaurant serving meatballs.” Turned out that the meatballs were only served as staff meals. Nevertheless, they are great.

Ingredients:

• 500g minced meat, veal or beef
• 100g breadcrumbs, or I used crumbled weatbix instead
• 2 eggs
• 50g onion, very finely diced
• 1 glove garlic, minced
• 2 tbs ketjap manis
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste
• 0,5 litre beef stock
• 50g butter

Instructions:

1. Place all ingredients except for the beef stock and butter in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Use your hands to knead the mixture until well combined.
2. Form 8-9 equal-sized balls, they should be slightly smaller than a tennis ball.
3. Let them rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
4. Melt the butter in a large heavy based pan on medium heat.
5. Add the meat balls and cook for about 10 minutes, carefully turning the balls to brown on all sides.
6. Add the beef stock, cover the pan and cook on a very low heat for 45 minutes, occasionally turning the meat balls.

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These Dutch Meatballs are great with “Stampot” (mashed potatoes with endive), “Hutspot” (mashed potatoes with carrots and onion) or the very traditional “Boerenkool” (mashed potatoes with kale).

Notes:

• Salt; You don’t need to add a lot of salt because the meatball are cooked in a stock. You can even leave the salt if you like.
• Size does matter: You want your meat balls to be juicy. When you make them too large, they take longer to cook. Making them to small…… well who wants small meatballs.
• Spice: You can spice up your meat balls by adding more chilli. You could also add finely chopped fresh herbs like oregano or parsley.