Dillkött (Swedish veal in dill sauce)
120 min · 49 g protein · 455 cals / serving
The old-fashioned Swedish Sunday dish: tender veal simmered slowly with dill stalks, allspice and root vegetables, then served in a pale, sweet-sour dill sauce made from its own broth. Kvarg replaces most of the cream, so the sauce stays soft and tangy, and there is a big handful of fresh dill in every spoonful.
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 lb veal shoulder, raw, boneless veal shoulder (kalvbog), in 4 cm cubes
- 4 1/4 cups water
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 10 whole allspice berries ground allspice
- 2 bay leaves bay leaf
- 1 medium onion, halved
- stalks from 1 bunch fresh dill
- 6 medium carrots, in chunks
- 1/2 celeriac, in chunks
Dill sauce
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour (bleached)
- 2 1/2 tbsp distilled vinegar (5 %) white vinegar
- 2 tsp granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup quark
- 3 1/2 tbsp half fat creme fraiche
- 1 1/2 bunches fresh dill, chopped
To serve
- 4 medium potatoes, peeled
Steps
- Put the veal in a pot with the water and bring it to a boil. Skim off the grey foam that rises, then add the salt, allspice, bay leaves, onion and dill stalks. Cover and simmer very gently for 1 hour.
- Ladle 1 dl (scant 1/2 cup) of the broth into a cup and leave it to cool. Add the carrot and celeriac to the pot and simmer 25–30 minutes more, until the veal is tender enough to cut with a spoon and the roots are soft. Lift the meat and vegetables into a warm dish with a slotted spoon. Strain the broth and measure out 1 2/3 cups; keep the rest for soup.
- Whisk the flour into the cooled cup of broth until completely smooth (a mjölredning). Bring the 4 dl of broth to a boil in a saucepan, whisk in the flour mixture and simmer, whisking, for 5 minutes until smooth and thick. Whisk in the vinegar and sugar, take the pan off the heat, and stir in the kvarg and crème fraiche until creamy. Fold in the chopped dill and taste: it should be gently sweet-sour, so add a few drops more vinegar or a pinch of sugar to your liking.
- Meanwhile boil the potatoes in salted water until tender, about 20 minutes. Return the veal and vegetables to the sauce, warm through without boiling, and serve with the potatoes.
Good to know
Which cut?
Kalvbog (veal shoulder) or kalvlägg (shank) both turn meltingly tender. Lamb shoulder makes the other classic dillkött and is a little richer: a score of about 71 instead of 77.
Why is the kvarg added off the heat?
Kvarg can split if it boils. Stirred into the hot sauce away from the burner it melts in and gives the creaminess that cream used to.
Make ahead?
Cook the meat a day ahead and keep it in its broth in the fridge. Make the sauce just before serving.
Per
- Calories
- 72
- Protein
- (44%)
- 8 g
- Fat
- (17%)
- 1 g
- Carbohydrates
- (40%)
- 8 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 164 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 1819 kcal goes into the pot and 3371 g of ingredients comes out as about 2510 g of food: 72 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.