No matter how well the hostess cooks, she will never be against diversity. Meatballs with cheese - this is the same option that will suit both experienced chefs and those who are just starting to work in this field. Why? The recipes for this dish are simple to simple, and are available only to those who already have rich experience in working in the kitchen. Let's start with the basics.
About the origin of meatballs
It's no secret that meat is an expensive product. At all times of human history there were those to whom it was not available. That is why nothing of the killed animal was ever thrown out. Rolls were prepared from the skin, flour from the bones, and cutlets from the remains of the minced meat. If cereals were added to the stuffing, it became meatballs, and if ground meat was strung on skewers, it was kebab.
If we say where meatballs came from in the world cuisine, then it’s worth understanding the origins of the word itself, giving the name of the dish. The root of the word "meatballs" sends us to the national cuisine of the Turkic peoples. They loved to cook meat balls in various sauces and spices. The dish reached European cuisine through the Austrian and Balkan.
Popular recipe
It is worth noting that the recipes for meatballs with cheese can differ not only in the choice of minced meat, but also in all ingredients. The most popular and common option includes the following items:
- A few onions.
- One carrot.
- A few cloves of garlic.
- One pepper.
- Raw chicken egg.
- Five tablespoons of sour cream.
- 700 grams of minced meat, consisting of equal parts of pork and beef.
- A tablespoon of flour.
- Salt and spices to taste.
- A tablespoon of flour.
Some are very fond of adding a little celery root. But this already applies to personal taste preferences.
We proceed to cooking. Start by mixing the minced meat with spices, chopped onion, egg and crushed garlic. This will be the basis for meatballs. They form balls from the size of a walnut to an average apple and lay out in a baking dish covered with foil. Before the meat koloboks go to the oven, you need to prepare a sauce for them. How?
Coarsely grated carrots with finely chopped onions and pepper are sautéed in vegetable oil. The process lasts no more than five minutes. After the vegetables are golden, they are salted. But cooking the sauce does not end there. Now is the time to mix vegetables with sour cream sauce.
Meatball sauce
To prepare it in a glass of water, thoroughly stir the flour. It is better to introduce flour gradually so that there are no lumps. Once the mass becomes homogeneous, it is mixed with sour cream and added to the vegetables. After extinguishing the resulting sauce, it is poured into meatballs.
The whole dish is sent to the oven already heated to 200 degrees for half an hour. After this time, the meatballs are removed for a short period of time to sprinkle with grated cheese, and put to bake for another 15 minutes.
What is the result? Fragrant meatballs with cheese in the most tender sour cream sauce. In this dish, the cheese will act as a viscous crust.
We complicate the dish
This option, how to cook meatballs with cheese in the oven, differs from the previous one in the complexity of execution. If in the previous case everything will take about an hour, then this recipe will take more than an hour and a half. Two medium onions are added to a kilogram of minced meat. Two chicken eggs, salt, spices and a grated cheese are mixed in the resulting mixture. You need to mix the ingredients until the entire contents of the dishes become homogeneous.
While the oven will heat up to 200 degrees, sunflower oil is poured into the mold. Wet hands of minced meat form koloboks with a diameter of not more than 7 centimeters, which are rolled in 100 grams of flour and laid out in a form so that they do not touch.
While for half an hour meatballs with cheese will be browned, it is necessary to prepare the sauce. To do this, pour a glass of hot water into the pan and mix it with 100 grams of tomato paste. As soon as this mixture boils, spices and 100 grams of sour cream are added to it. The sauce mixed to a homogeneous mass should boil in a pan for 5 minutes.
Rosy meatballs are poured with sauce and sent to the oven for another half hour. Serve the dish is decorated with greens.
Rice Option
Three tablespoons of rice should be boiled until half cooked. This is the most difficult and important. Rice is better to take steamed and long. Then porridge will turn out friable and will become decoration of a dish, but not its shame.
So, to cook meatballs with rice and cheese, you need to mix half a kilogram of minced pork with finely chopped onions. Already prepared rice and cheese are added to this mixture. The latter is better to introduce gradually so that it does not turn into one continuous lump. Salt and egg are added at the very end. A thoroughly mixed mixture is ready for the formation of meatballs.
First, the balls are fried in a pan. Thus, they are held together, but do not become ready. In order to complete the dish, the koloboks are laid out in a mold and filled with a glass of water, in which four tablespoons of sour cream are mixed. For a brighter flavor, be sure to add spices and salt.
Now that the meatballs with cheese are laid out in a mold and filled with sauce, they have to go to the oven for 30 minutes. It is important to remember that the optimal baking temperature is 170 degrees.
Italian Meatballs
These meatballs with cheese and sauce are probably the most complicated and expensive recipe. Italian bread is required by prescription, but it is easy to replace it with ordinary bread by adding a spice known as Italian Herbs.
Now let's move on to cooking. Two chicken eggs and pre-soaked bread in milk are added to one kilogram of ground beef. Chopped parsley, half a glass of parmesan and spices are added to the same mixture.
Meatballs are formed from the minced meat, into which mozzarella balls must be inserted. Billets must be put in a greased form with olive oil and sent to the oven for half an hour. While the meatballs are baked with cheese, it is necessary to prepare the sauce.
In a pan with a thick bottom, heat olive oil, which is later added to red pepper and chopped garlic. So the spices will reveal their aroma and taste. After a minute of frying, chopped tomatoes and a glass of water are sent to the pan. Do not forget about chopped basil. The sauce should be stewed for half an hour until it becomes thick.
The meatballs are taken out of the oven, poured with sauce and sent to cook for another 6 minutes.