Swedish PanneBouef

It's like little meatloaves cooked on top of the stove, with lots of nice creamy gravy.

Back story:  when I worked for a Swedish chef in NY (ha ha, like on Sesame Street), a lot of Swedish cooks came over to work there and live in NYC for a while.  Like most fine dining restaurants, the cooks made a meal for the whole staff each service.  Many of us enjoyed to chance to cook "family meal" for our colleagues, but sometimes time was tight and it became a real PITA.  In any case, this PanneBouef was made occasionally by one of the Swedes.  He'd grind up half of a Top Round for it.  The panne evidently means "forehead" I guess- don't really get that- but since it's cooked in a pan it's a good enough name for a simple, quick dinner that most kids will love.

I actually ground up an enormous strip steak for this because I cooked its twin and found it to be less than stellar due to the fact it was frozen for a while.  It was probably close to 1 lb.  Then I added an egg, some breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, dried minced onion (from Penzey's- a decent substitute for when you don't want to bother sauteing a little onion for meatloaves or balls), Worcestershire sauce, a little milk...I think that was it.

I formed the mixture into 4 flattened ovals and browned them in a little oil.  Then, I removed them from the pan and added sliced mushrooms to brown.  You can see the ovals on the inverted pan lid on top of the Dutch oven.  Anything to save a dish!

Then a little minced onion is added and just cooked through, and some beef broth mixed with a tablespoon of flour get whisked in and brought to the boil to thicken.  A hit of heavy cream-

And to finish it I used a touch of stone ground mustard and some capers.  The beef goes back in for a few minutes to cook through and get coated in the delicious sauce. On the side I served roasted sweet and new potatoes (photo is raw).  This was one of those nights I go out and my husband eats with the girls.  The nice thing about the PanneBoeuf is that it can rest there in it's gravy for a little while before dinnertime.  Sour cream is good to use instead fo the heavy cream, but it must be added at the very end and not brought to the boil or else it might curdle.