Around the World in 80 Plates: Norway

For Norway, I decided to try out kjøttkaker or Norweigan meatballs. I had always heard about Swedish meatballs and honestly didn't know that other Scandinavian countries had their own version (or that a lot of countries around the world do). From what I could gather from reading through different translated recipes, Norweigan meatballs were spiced with ginger, allspice, nutmeg and are served with a beef gravy, boiled potatoes and lingonberry compote. I decided to try some frozen veg meatballs from the freezer section for the first time but I needed to figure out a way to impart the flavors usually found in the meatballs. I figured the best way was to spice up the gravy instead. I made a simple "beefy" gravy using onions and making a roux with flour and olive oil making sure to let it get some colour before I added veg beef style bouillon cubes. I added in a pinch each of ginger, allspice and nutmeg and then added my meatballs that I had heated in the oven. I served them in these adorable little dishes I bought recently at the supermarket with a little dollop of lingonberry sauce from IKEA. At first I thought I wouldn't like the lingonberry sauce with it but it really did add something. It perked up the flavors so I ended up adding a bit more to my plate. The gravy with the meatballs was tasty and a bit addictive especially mixed with simple boiled potatoes. The next day I had leftover gravy but we had eaten up all the meatballs. I was really happy I bought that second bag though! I quickly heated up a few meatballs and gravy and they were even better the next day. Isn't that always the way with gravy?