Polish Meatballs in Sour Cream With Mushrooms (Klopsiki)

Delicious homemade swedish meatballs with mushroom cream sauce.
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Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 30 mins
Total: 50 mins
Servings: 4 to 6 servings

This recipe for Polish meatballs in sour cream with mushrooms is known as klopsiki w śmietanie grzybami (klohp-SEE-kee vef shmeh-TAHN-yeh zhih-BAH-mee). They can be made with any combination of ground pork, beef, and veal.

The meatballs stay tender if they're browned in a skillet on the stovetop and then transferred to the oven to finish cooking. They can be served with a pan gravy or mushroom sauce and a side of mashed potatoes, dumplings, or rice.

Ingredients

For the Meatballs:

  • 1 slice white bread, stale

  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup milk

  • 3/4 pound ground beef chuck

  • 1/4 to 1/2 pound lean ground pork

  • 1 small onion, finely chopped

  • 1 large egg, slightly beaten

  • Salt, to taste

  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

  • 1 to 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs, optional

  • 2 tablespoons beef stock, or water, optional

For the Optional Pan Gravy:

  • 3/4 cup sour cream

  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

  • 1 1/2 cups water

For the Optional Mushroom Sauce:

  • 2 ounces Polish dried mushrooms, or dried porcini mushrooms

  • 2 cups boiling water

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

  • 1 large onion, coarsely chopped

  • 8 ounces button mushrooms, fresh or canned with liquid reserved, sliced

  • 1 teaspoon Vegeta, or beef or chicken base

  • Salt, to taste

  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

  • 1 cup sour cream

  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Steps to Make It

Make the Meatballs

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. In a large bowl, soak bread in milk until soft. Add beef, pork, onion, egg, salt, and pepper to taste and mix thoroughly. If the mixture feels too mushy, add 1 to 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs. To make sure your seasonings are on point, fry up a tiny patty, taste, and adjust as necessary.

  3. Heat oven to 325 F. Using a medium cookie scoop, portion out meatballs, giving a final roll with dampened hands.

  4. Lightly coat a skillet with cooking spray and brown meatballs on all sides.

  5. Transfer to a baking pan with a lip, add 2 tablespoons beef stock or water and bake, uncovered, 30 minutes.

Make the Optional Pan Gravy

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. If you choose to make a pan gravy instead of a mushroom sauce, remove the fat from the surface of the pan juices and add 3/4 cup sour cream fork-blended with 2 tablespoons flour.

  3. Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water, whisking until smooth. Cook until thickened.

  4. Serve along with meatballs and the starch of your preference. Alternatively, serve the meatballs with mushroom sauce.

Make the Optional Mushroom Sauce

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. Place dried mushrooms in a heatproof bowl and pour 2 cups boiling water over. Let steep for 30 minutes.

  3. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, sauté 1 large chopped onion in butter until caramelized. If using fresh mushrooms, add to the saucepan once the onions are translucent. Otherwise, place undrained canned mushrooms in the pan once the onions have fully caramelized.

  4. Using your fingers, lift the dried mushrooms out of their soaking liquid and add to the pan with onions. Carefully add the soaking liquid to the pan, making sure not to disturb the sediment at the bottom.

  5. Add Vegeta or beef or chicken base, salt, and pepper to taste (if using canned mushroom liquid, you probably won't need to add any salt). Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, 30 minutes.

  6. In a medium bowl, fork blend 2 tablespoons flour into 1 cup sour cream. Temper the sour cream by adding 3 ladles of hot mushroom liquid, 1 ladle at a time, and whisking until smooth. Slowly pour the tempered sour cream back into the mushroom sauce, whisking constantly.

  7. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes until thickened and raw flour taste is cooked out. The cooked meatballs can be immersed in this sauce, reheated and served over noodles, mashed potatoes or rice.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
475 Calories
30g Fat
23g Carbs
30g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4 to 6
Amount per serving
Calories 475
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 30g 38%
Saturated Fat 14g 71%
Cholesterol 156mg 52%
Sodium 489mg 21%
Total Carbohydrate 23g 8%
Dietary Fiber 3g 10%
Total Sugars 6g
Protein 30g
Vitamin C 4mg 21%
Calcium 143mg 11%
Iron 3mg 19%
Potassium 811mg 17%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)