Meatballs in Caper Sauce (Konigsberger Klopse)

"From: The Eastern European Cookbook" by Kay Shaw Nelson. -East Germany. Russians call it 'Kaliningrad'. This is an easy version...all the other versions I've seen posted make a mess of your kitchen."
 
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photo by teresas photo by teresas
photo by teresas
Ready In:
30mins
Ingredients:
12
Serves:
6-8
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ingredients

  • Meatballs

  • 1 12 cups stale bread cubes
  • milk, to soak bread cubes
  • 2 lbs ground lean meat (mixture of pork and veal or beef)
  • 1 large onion, peeled and minced
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 3 flat anchovy fillets, drained and minced
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • Sauce

  • 4 cups beef bouillon
  • 3 tablespoons butter or 3 tablespoons margarine
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 1 lemon, juice of (about 1/4 cup)
  • 3 tablespoons capers, drained
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directions

  • Meatballs:

  • Soak bread cubes in milk to cover. When soft, squeeze dry and put in a large bowl.
  • Add ground meat and mix well.
  • Stir in onion, eggs, anchovy fillets, salt and pepper; work mixture with hands until well combined.
  • Form into 2-inch balls.
  • Bring bouillon to a boil in a large saucepan; drop in meatballs.
  • Cook over medium heat until meatballs rise to the top, about 15 minutes. Remove from liquid with a slotted spoon and keep warm.
  • Strain and reserve liquid.
  • Sauce:

  • Melt butter in a saucepan.
  • Stir in flour and blend well, cook 1 minute.
  • Gradually add 3 cups strained liquid; cook slowly, stirring constantly, until liquid is thickened and smooth.
  • Add lemon juice and capers. Season with salt and pepper.
  • Add meatballs and heat through.

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Reviews

  1. Despite the fact that I really messed up when planning for this recipe, it still came out very well. I could not find anchovies anywhere at the store, so skipped them. Then as I was cooking, I discovered not only did I not have beef broth, I also did not have lemon juice. I used a packet of onion soup mix with 4 cups water and it seemed to do the trick and the sauce still came out VERY tasty. I skipped out on the lemon juice, having no suitable subsitute. Although I made several subsitutions & skipped some ingredients, still it was very tasty. The only addition I made was to put some garlic into the meatballs. We liked the capers in the sauce. Even my 1 year old son ate them- inhaled them actually, so it was enjoyed all around. Thanks for posting the recipe.
     
  2. DH took one bite and said "I love this sauce". That's a good sign. I made as posted with the exception of cutting the sauce in half because I froze half of the meatballs. We will have another excellent meal in the future. Yum! I made the meatballs with 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 ground pork. Served over noodles. The meatball recipe is very similar to my German hamburger recipe. Omit the anchovy and make into patties and fry them. Thanks for posting. :) Made for kittencalskitchen.com tag game.
     
  3. 10 Stars for memory and taste gratification. These are just like my mother made them when I grew up in Berlin. She always had to sprinkle them with parsley or chives, because I did not like "Blond Dishes "as a little girl!:-)Since veal is $14>00 a pound I used Turkey , beef and pork instead. I had forgotten all about these until I ran across your recipe. They will now be made often. Thanks again.
     
  4. DH and I made this recipe last night for dinner. It was very good. The meatballs had nice flavor, and, as promised held together nicely during cooking. I used a combination of ground pork and veal. My bread was not stale, but it did not seem to affect the consistency. The sauce was rich and thick, with a nice lemony flavor. I used four cups of beef stock (which I assumed is the same/similar to bouillon). Best of all, as you promised, there was no mess! Thanks for posting!
     
  5. Absolutely beautiful, these are simple but oh so. The meatballs just were so soft to eat but didn't fall apart when cooking, I reckon the secret is the bread & milk (Anna del Conte has this in one of her rissole recipes and the outcome is the same). Beautiful texture and flavour, so easy to make, and not much mess (bonus!). Thanks TBird.
     
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Tweaks

  1. 10 Stars for memory and taste gratification. These are just like my mother made them when I grew up in Berlin. She always had to sprinkle them with parsley or chives, because I did not like "Blond Dishes "as a little girl!:-)Since veal is $14>00 a pound I used Turkey , beef and pork instead. I had forgotten all about these until I ran across your recipe. They will now be made often. Thanks again.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

I'm not as active here anymore, but you can find me playing at the new recipezazz.com. I'm not a great photographer, but I love to take food photos with Freddy Cat to bring a smile to people's day. I love to cook and share good food with other people. I have a very large collection of cookbooks. I used to enjoy being able to look up recipes on Zaar by ingredients I had on hand. I miss the Zaar tag game community. Everyone was so nice, and it was super fun. Ah, the good ol' days.
 
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