This Russian twist on meatballs is taken from Alissa Timoshkina’s cookbook, Salt and Time: Recipes from a Russian Kitchen.
As she says in her recipe, the meatballs ”simply must be served with the fluffiest mashed potatoes and plenty of the creamy sauce to pour all over your plate.”
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Ingredients
For the meatballs
- 500g minced beef
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, grated
- 100g basmati rice
- 1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil, for frying
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the sauce
- 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
- 200g button mushrooms, finely sliced
- ½ onion, finely diced
- 250g single cream
- 200ml stock (a ready-made vegetarian one would work here)
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
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Method
- To make the ‘hedgehogs’, mix the minced beef with the onion, garlic, rice and parsley in a large bowl, and season with salt and pepper. Use 2 heaped tablespoons to form each ‘hedgehog’ or meatball. You should end up with 12.
- Set aside or refrigerate while you make the sauce. Heat up the oil in a large saucepan and fry the mushrooms and onion over a medium heat for 5–8 minutes. Add the cream and stock, season with salt and pepper to taste and cook for a further 8 minutes over a very low heat.
- While the sauce is simmering, cook the meatballs. Heat up the oil in a heavy-based frying pan or a shallow flameproof casserole dish and cook the meatballs for 40 seconds–1 minute on each side until they get a lovely crispy coating. Add the mushroom sauce, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- These ‘hedgehogs’ simply must be served with the fluffiest mashed potatoes and plenty of the creamy sauce to pour all over your plate.
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