Family Friday: Grandfather Göran

 
My grandfather lives in the same city as my grandmother (read the post about her here), Karlskrona in the deep south of Sweden. We never stayed with him when we were visiting, but always went there for dinner one night. It was always kind of exciting, running up the three stairs to his apartment were the food would be cooking. His walls are crowded with posters from various museums and other prints, and he used to have some giant fishes in an aquarium that we loved watching and feeding. Then it was dinner time. My memory tells me we always had meatballs, potatoes, sauce and lingonberry jam. We probably didn’t, but I think it was one of his parade numbers. Before the last person had even had the time to finish, he started bringing out dessert, so eager to serve us everything he had prepared that he just couldn’t wait. I don’t think there ever was just one dessert. There was crème brulée, chocolate pudding, ice cream and whipped cream. I don’t think we ever left there slightly hungry.

I like to make my meatballs using ground up seitan, stiffened up with breadcrumbs. This produces a quite neutral palette, ready to be seasoned with what floats your boat. But please, use your favorite beanball recipe. Although I haven't tried them, I pretty sure these lentil balls from the Post Punk Kitchen would be awesome. 

For chocolate pudding, I always use the recipe from Vegan With A Vengeance. It’s a good, simple pudding, and is ridiculously quick to make.