RASPEBALL

RECIPE

Captured by

The Recipe Hunters

in Norway

Raspeball is a meal with roots that trace to Western Norway, but with recipes that will differ from town-to-town and kitchen-to-kitchen. Mats remembers how his grandmother slow cooked the meats for the dish; braising them until they fell loosely from the bones. He walks over to the lamb shoulder and ham hocks on the stove and points to the meat, which he has been roasting since last night. The effect is mouth-watering.

From a full four hours of cooking and waiting it is almost time to eat. The aroma of the slow roasted meats, the fried bacon, and the sausage fill the room. Mats plates two enormous platters, each about 16 inches in diameter. The platters are overflowing with succulent potato raspeballs, hog hanks, lamb shoulder, sausage, bacon, and rutabaga. With 5 minutes to spare, Mats runs to the grocery store and returns with the two most important parts of the meal: the sour milk and the syrup. Odd at the sound of it, but this bittersweet combination allows your taste buds to reset so you can fully indulge in another bite of this hearty meal. He tells us to drizzle some syrup on our plates and wash down each hardy bite with sour milk, just as his grandma did. We join in on the tradition and eat until our stomachs are full and more of Raspeball, simmered with Love.

INGREDIENTS:

For 4-6 people:

300 g bacon or cured pork belly
1 ham hock, salted (preferrably smoked as well)
500 g salted lamb shoulder w/ bone
200 g sausage, lamb or pork
200 g butter
600 g rutabaga, peeled, cut in 1 cm discs

300 g boiled peeled potato
700 g raw peeled potato
100 g of wheat flour
150 g barley flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

RECIPE WITH PICTURES:

(hover over pictures for recipe instructions)

1. Put the ham hock and lamb shoulder in a pot, cover with water, and simmer until "falling of the bone"-tender.

2. Leave to cool in the stock before removing the meat from the pot. The stock will be used later for poaching the potato dumpling.

3. Reheat the stock to a gently simmer.

4. Grind the raw potatoes through a meat grinder fitted with a medium sized disc (5mm), or grate them on a grinder course side.

5. Squeeze out some of the moisture from the potatoes.

6. Grind or grate the boiled potatoes, and mix the with the raw.

7. Mix in the flour in 3 turns, until you have a dough that can hold its shape without being to firm.

8. Add salt and pepper. Check the seasoning.

9. Use tablespoon and a cup of water, dip the spoon in the water and shape round balls approximately 5 cm thick.

10. Lower the balls gently in the simmering stock, one at the time.

11. Poach the dumplings for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size. Do not let the stock boil, or you will end up with a potato soup.

12. After adding the dumplings, add the rutabaga and let it cook with the dumplings.

13. Put the ham hock, lamb shoulder and sausage in another pot, add some of the cooking liquid from the dumplings, cover with a lid and gently reheat the meat.

14. Cut the bacon in cubes 1x1 cm and fry in butter.

15. Combine all ingredients on a big plate. Serve with golden syrup, dijon mustard, and some sour milk. Enjoy Raspeball, Made with Love!

WRITTEN RECIPE:

1. Put the ham hock and lamb shoulder in a pot, cover with water, and simmer until "falling of the bone"-tender (4-6 hours to get the best results).