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German kitchen

Koenigsberger Klopse

Pale, soft meatballs in a lemony white sauce studded with capers, which sounds odd right up until the first spoonful. It is the gentlest thing in this kitchen and it takes under twenty minutes.

Total time
19 min
Serves
2
Effort
Medium

What you need

Written for 2 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.

Cooking for
2 people

0 of 10 in the basket.

How you make it

  1. Squeeze the bread out and mix it with the mince, grated onion, egg yolk, a good pinch of salt and plenty of white pepper, then roll into 10 balls.

  2. Bring the stock to a bare simmer in a wide pan and lower the meatballs in. Poach gently for 10 minutes, never letting it boil, until they are firm and cooked right through with no pink.

  3. Lift the meatballs out with a slotted spoon and keep them warm. Reserve the poaching stock.

  4. Melt the butter in a second pan, stir in the flour and cook 1 minute, then whisk in 350ml of the hot stock a splash at a time until smooth. Simmer 3 minutes.

  5. Stir in the capers, brine, lemon juice and cream, taste for salt, then return the meatballs and warm through for 2 minutes.

Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?

Completely fair. Koenigsberger Klopse is sitting in the German kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.

Order it instead

Crisp, brown and reassuringly enormous.