Introduced in Sweden in 1862 by Henrik Lindström, born in Saint Petersburg and raised in a Swedish family, it was while visiting a hotel restaurant in the Swedish city of Kalmar that Lindström instructed the kitchen on how to make his special fried beef patty. From there, the recipe spread all over Sweden.
In miniature format, this beetroot patty is a delicacy that is part of the classic Swedish smörgåsbord.
To the kitchen, Chefs ...
You need some mashed potato in this, so get one cubed and boiling away. I actually used two, since I was making some potato croutons to accompany and wanted them all regularly square, so all the trimmings from two potatoes made the mash.
Don't forget to retrieve the cubes after a few minutes - we don't want these to be too soft and will be frying them off later.
If white potato is not part of your paleo diet, you could use all manner of other root vegetables but do allow all the steam to evaporate the liquid. It might also be worth adding in a teaspoon, or two, or another starch - arrowroot, manioc, yam, that kind of thing. It's the starchiness in the potato which helps bind these and give a soft middle texture.
Meanwhile, drop a pound of minced beef into a mixing bowl. That's ground beef to some. Add a small amount of pork mince, too - maybe a quarter of a pound.
Finely chop an onion and then break it down further by shredding it. Scatter into the mixing bowl.
Mince some capers. Scatter into the mixing bowl.
Mince some pickled beetroot and scatter into the mixing bowl. Three golf ball sized beets will do perfectly.
Crack a couple of large eggs and retrieve the yolks, adding into the bowl. Reserve the whites for making up a mega-egg for breakfast.
Add in some sea salt and white pepper. I added in some shredded wild garlic, too, just because.
Your mashed potato should now have softened, so just mash it down and allow the steam to take off a lot of moisture. Add to the mixing bowl.
Now we get to the fun part, which should never be done with a food processor!
Roll your sleeves up and get your hands in there, squeezing the meat through your fingers. This action will break down the meat and ensure that everything is really well mixed together.
Fun, that!
Form a number of patties, somewhere between quarter and half pounders. You can make these flat or tall. I went for a bunch of tall patties.
Fry off over a medium heat in a little butter.
In another frying pan with some more butter or dripping, gently fry off the potato cubes to golden brown.
Ready to serve? Get a fried egg going while you plate up.
Place a patty in the middle of the plate, scattering pickled gherkin slices and the potato cubes around. Of course, you could accompany with some greens and some mashed sweet potato - that would be fantastic, too.
Slice the fried egg on top of the patty and dig in ...
Njuta!
