Russian Meat Balls ( or not…..)

I saw this recipe & I think it is called Russian Meat Balls because the author of the recipe..her grandmother made these & she was from Russia!

The recipe is from The Nosher..here is a link to the recipe

The picture they posted of these meatballs looked so delicious…that is why I decided to make them.

The sauce is simple to make & the meatballs have rice in them…lots of rice…so I am not going to serve them with pasta…I made extra rice if Murray wants to have some under the meatballs & sauce

I made this in my soup pot… it isn’t really big & I ran out of room in the pot..so I just fried up the the rest of the meat mixture into little burgers… they fell apart in the pan so I am really hoping that they meatballs stay together in the pot…. it is cooking as I am writing this…so I will let you know at the end of this post if they stayed together… the recipe calls for 1 egg but I thought I should have put 2 in for 2 lbs of beef and 2 cups of rice….yeech!

Note: I didn’t have any rice cooked so I cooked the rice while the sauce was cooking when the rice was ready I mixed up the meatball mixture & put them into the sauce/ I made the meatballs pretty big , using an ice cream scoop, but of course you can make your meatballs any size you want them to be!

NOTE: my meatballs fell apart so it is kind of like a meat sauce with rice… ha. I would recommend using the second egg & making sure the sauce is simmering… mine boiled & that may have contributed to the meatballs falling apart. But… it tastes delicous so you should make it …. we just ate it in a bowl with a spoon & it is sooo good! There is a lot of it so I am going to freeze some. Murray thinks the pot was not big enough & the meatballs did not have enough room & he is right… use a big enough pot!

Here is the recipe as written on The Nosher

Ingredients

For the Sauce….

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 tbsp oil, not olive oil

1 large carrot, wash & peel & grated

2 -3 cloves of garlic,, minced ,,, I used a heaping teaspoon of pre-minced garlic

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 can ( 28 oz/ 796 ml) of crushed tomatoes… I only had diced tomatoes so I put them in the food processor & pureed them!

2 cans plain tomato sauce… I used a bottle of tomato sauce

1 tbsp sugar or 2 tbsp maple syrup…. I used sugar

2 tsp dried oregano

1 ( 28 oz/796 ml) can of water

salt & pepper to taste

For the Meatballs

2 lbs of ground meat… I used beef but you can use chicken or turkey

2 cups cooked basmati rice ( about 3/4 cup uncooked)

1 large egg…next time I am adding another egg…so …2 eggs

1 large onion, minced very fine

2 1/2 tsp kosher salt

pepper to taste

1 large clove of garlic, finely grated or minced

Method

The Sauce

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan
2. Add the finely minced onion & cook it until it is golden & soft.. which can take about 15 to 20 minutes.. Stir the onion occasionally *** this is when I put the rice up to cook
3. When the onion is cooked, add the grated carrot , garlic & tomato paste. Stir it well so that everything is coated with the tomato paste. Cook until the carrot is soft
4. Now, add the remaining ingredients , mix well
5. Bring to a simmer

The Meat Balls

1. Combine the meat, rice, egg…use 2 eggs, onion, salt, pepper, & garlic
2. Mix really well to combine all of the ingredients… using your hands works really well
3. Make your meatballs & gently drop them into the simmering sauce
4. Bring back to a simmer, partially cover the pot
5. Cook for 35-45 minutes , cooking time will depend on how big your meatballs are… make sure they are cooked through

Serve alone, over rice, with pasta… anyway you like!! The recipe suggests serving with a piece of bread!