A dish every Dane grew up on: soft little pork meatballs simmered in a mild, golden curry sauce with leek and sweet-sharp pieces of apple, spooned over fluffy rice. The balls cook right in the sauce, so all their flavour stays in the pot.
- Time
- 55 min (20 prep + 35 cook)
- Servings
- 4
- Per serving
- 652 kcal
- Protein
- 36 g
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 lb 2 oz raw ground pork, 8% fat, lean pork mince, about 8 % fat
- 1 small onion, finely grated
- 1 large egg
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour (bleached), plain flour
- scant 1/2 cup 1% milk
- 1 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Curry sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 1 medium leek, halved lengthwise and sliced
- 1 1/2 tbsp curry powder, mild
- 5 tbsp all-purpose flour (bleached), plain flour
- 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp 1% milk
- 2 medium apples, tart, peeled and diced
To serve
- 1 1/4 cups basmati rice, uncooked
- 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Steps
- Work the pork and salt together in a bowl for a minute until sticky. Beat in the grated onion, egg, flour and pepper, then the milk a little at a time, until the mixture is soft but just holds its shape. Put it in the fridge while you make the sauce.
- Melt the butter in a wide pot over medium heat and soften the onion and leek for 5 minutes without browning. Stir in the curry powder and cook for a minute until it smells toasty.
- Sprinkle in the flour and stir for a minute. Add the stock a little at a time, whisking, then the milk. Bring to a simmer, whisking, until smooth.
- Shape 24 small balls with two wet spoons and slip them raw into the simmering sauce. Cover and cook gently for 15 minutes until firm and cooked through (160°F), adding the apple for the last 5 minutes. Shake the pot rather than stirring, so the balls stay round. Add a splash of water if the sauce gets too thick.
- Meanwhile cook the rice according to the packet. Taste the sauce for salt and curry, scatter with parsley and serve over the rice. Cool any leftover rice quickly and refrigerate it within an hour; the meatballs keep 4 days in the fridge and freeze for 3 months in their sauce.
Good to know
Should the balls be poached first?
Either way is classic. Poaching them for about 8 minutes in a litre of simmering water and using 6 dl of that water for the sauce gives very clean, round balls; putting them in raw, as here, gives the sauce more flavour and one pot less to wash.
Can I use ordinary pork mince?
Yes. Mince with about 15 % fat makes softer, richer balls: a score of about 46 instead of 53.
Is it spicy?
No, Danish karry is mild and a little sweet from the apple, so children usually love it. For more warmth add a pinch of cayenne with the curry powder.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 96
- Protein
- (22%)
- 5 g
- Fat
- (25%)
- 3 g
- Carbohydrates
- (53%)
- 13 g
- of which sugar
- 3 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 195 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2608 kcal goes into the pot and 2479 g of ingredients comes out as about 2710 g of food: 96 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.