Patties with meat

PATTIES WITH MEAT

Minced meat stuffing

Ingredients:

500 g. ground beef

3 large ground onions

5 cloves garlic

100 g. olive oil + oil to smear the sheets

3 large tomatoes ripe

Salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon oregano

A pinch savory

6 cumin seeds

Ply

Sometimes I use ready sheet and sometimes I make my own.

When using ready-sheet buy 500 grams of crust sheet.

(In the stores with Greek products you will find the sheets of Kanakis Co which are very good)

Homemade sheet

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil

125 g. margarine

1/2 cup Retsina or another white wine

60 g. sesame

600 g. about self- rising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Instructions

Minced meat stuffing

Peel the onions and the garlic.

Put in a pot 100 g. of olive oil and place it over medium heat.

Chop onions and garlic, pour them in the pot and stir.

Let them sauté until they become soft and tender.

Put into the pot the ground beef and stir.

Lower a little more the heat.

Let minced release its fluids and simmer in them.

As the minced boils lumps are formed.

Press them with a fork and break them.

Put into the pot salt, pepper, oregano, savory, coriander, and the seeds of cumin.

Rinse tomatoes and mince them in a food processor.

Pour them into the mince.

Let the meat to simmer until it absorbs almost all fluids.

Remove the pot from the heat and let it cool.

Patties with ready sheet

Pull the sheet from the casing.

The sheet is fold in the middle. Open it on the working surface.

Cut perpendicular to the length strips with width 12 cm each.

Cut the strips into pieces with dimensions 12CH14 cm each.

Because the sheet is thin, put two sheets the one above another to create a sturdy piece of leaf

Smear each piece of sheet with olive oil.

Take one of those sheet pieces and put in the middle of it 2 large tablespoons of minced meat stuffing.  

Place the meat in an oblong shape.

Fold the upper and lower sides of the sheet and blanket with them the meat.

Wrap the patty twice and make a cylinder.

Put the cylindrical patties into a greased and floured pan, adjacent to one another.

Continue in this way until you run out of minced meat.

It is necessary to put lots of the filling into each patty, to be delicious.

Smear lightly the upper surface with olive oil.

Scour the sesame seeds with water and you drain it

Sprinkle over the patties with sesame.

Put the pan on the bottom rack of the oven and bake at 175 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

A minute before removing them from the oven rub some hard cheese for pasta over them.

Homemade sheet

Put in a bowl the olive oil.

Rub with tomato grater the margarine into the oil.

Mix these two with a fork.

Add the resin wine and mix again.

Pour the flour into the bowl little by little, sprinkle the baking powder over it and knead.

Add flour until you achieve soft dough that does not stick to your hands.

Let the dough rest for half an hour or more.

Take a quarter of the dough and open it to a thin sheet.

Cut the sheet into oblong strips 12 cm in width.

Cut the strips into pieces with dimensions 12CH14 centimeters.

Patties with homemade sheet

Smear lightly with olive oil each piece of sheet.

Take one piece of sheet and put 2 large tablespoons of minced meat on it.  

Place the meat in the sheet in an oblong shape.

Fold the upper and lower sides of the sheet and cover the meat.

Wrap the patty twice into a cylindrical shape.

Continue this way until you run out of minced meat.

You should put lots of filling in order to be delicious.

Place the patties into greased and floured pan, adjacent to one another.

From here and then continue as described above.

Meatballs with leeks and beets

MEATBALLS WITH LEEKS AND BEETS

Ingredients

1 bunch beets about 1.5 kg

1 kg of leeks

1 cup hot broth

2 large dry onions

5 cloves garlic

100 g. olive oil

Salt, pepper, oregano, savory

10 cumin seeds

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 piece of hot red chili pepper (in the size of a watermelon seed)

30 g. of feta cheese

350 g. ground beef

150 gr. minced pork

Preparing the materials

Beets

Cut the stalks from the bulbs. Separate the bulbs from their stalks and cut the leaves from the stems.

Keep the leaves to prepare stuffed dolmades.

You will use the stems and the bulbs in the meatballs.

Wash the stalks at least three waters to clean them thoroughly.

Cut them into pieces 2 cm in length each. Leave them aside for later use.

Rinse the bulbs well with water.

Clean each bulb as you clean an orange or an apple.

Remove the peel around it with a knife.

Rinse again the bulbs and cut them into thin slices.

Cut each slice into smaller pieces.

Leave them aside to use later.

Leeks

Take each leek separately and remove its dried outer leaves.

Three outer leaves are usually dry and those undernith them are tender.

The white part of the leeks is tender.

The green leaves are hard to the edges and therefore cut and discard them.   

Use only the white part of leeks and the tender part of the green leaves.

Cut each leek in half lengthwise.

Cut again into pieces 2 cm in length.

Fill a large bowl of water and pour into it  the chopped leeks.

Wash them 3 times and leave them aside.

Meatballs

Put in a bowl the ground beef, the minced pork, some salt and knead those for some time.

Add pepper, oregano, savory and half of the grated coriander and knead again.

Pour 2 TB of olive oil over the minced and knead again.

Put on your palm a piece of meat smaller than a walnut.

Conjure into your palms one small meatball.

Continue this way until you make meatballs from all the minced.

Put the meatballs in a low pan and place it in the fridge until you need it.

Implementation

Put a pot with ceramic coating over medium heat.

Pour into it the olive oil.

Clean the onions and mince them into the pot.

Scour garlic and mince it into the pot.

Stir them and sauté until tender.

Add the leeks and stir.

Let leeks to sauté briefly.

Add the meatballs and let them brown in a casserole two minutes.

Add the chopped stalks and the cut beets bulbs.

Let all these ingredients to simmer a few minutes.

Stir gently so the meatballs will not disperse.

Add the broth or boiling water, if you do not have broth.

Add the rest of the coriander and the seeds and cumin.

Leave the food to simmer until all the ingredients are soft and tender.

Rub with your fingers the feta cheese and break it into small pieces.

Pour feta into the casarole.

 Leave the food to boil for two minutes and then turn off the heat.

Boiled chicken with pilaf

BOILED CHICKEN WITH PILAF

Ingredients

1/2 free range rooster about 1.5 kg or a small chicken

2 cups rice for pilaf

3 sprigs of rosemary or dried rosemary leave

1 tbsp. Coriander grains

1 tsp. Black pepper grains

The juice of half large lemon

Half large lemon

80 g. olive oil

Salt to taste

2 pieces of tomatoes dried in the light of the sun.

1 teaspoon capers

A piece of red hot chili pepper in the size of a watermelon seed

Instructions

Rinse the chicken thoroughly and put salt and pepper inside its belly.

Put the meat in a pot. Add water until it reaches 4 cm above it.

Place the pot over high heat.

Shortly before the water boils foam forms on the water surface.

With a spoon collect the foam and discard it.

Lower the heat to medium.

Let the meat simmer for an hour and a quarter.

This time is usually enough to soften the meat.

Peg a fork in the meat and check if it is cooked.

You want the meat to unstuck from the bones but not to dissolve into pieces

When the meat is ready, remove it to a serving platter.

Put a little salt on the meat and cover it with foil. Put a clean towel on top, to keep it warm.

Leave it aside, to prepare the rice.

Pilaf

Pass the broth of the chicken through a strainer.

Measure 5 cups of this broth.

Measure two cups from pilaf rice. Put them in a strainer and rinse well.

Strain to drain.

Put in a pot the olive oil and place it over medium heat.

Put the rice into the pot and stir continuously.

When the rice becomes translucent, add to pot the five cups chicken broth.

Stir the rice and pour in salt as needed.

Wash a large lemon and cut it in halves.

Remove the seeds from the lemon. Cut half lemon in two slices and put them into the rice.

The rice gets scent from the lemon.

Let the lemon slices in the pot for 5 min only and then pull them out.

If you leave them longer in the rice, it will get bitter.

Squeeze the juice from the remaining lemon and pour it into the rice.

Stir the rice and watch it until cooked as needed.

Remove the pot from the heat.

Decoration

Put the meat in the center of a round platter.

Put pilaf around the meat.

On the meat put one or two pieces of dried tomatoes.

Put caper around the tomatoes, to add color to the dish.