Dishes from minced meat quite often appear on our table. After all, they are affordable, quickly cooked and, most importantly, very tasty. But if ordinary cutlets are tired, then you can diversify your menu and cook such an interesting dish as meat zrazy.
The name of this dish is of Polish origin, in translation it means "separated, cut off piece." The fact is that previously zrazy was made not from minced meat, but from whole pieces of meat, they made something like chops and wrapped the filling in the resulting layers.
To cook meat zrazy you will need minced meat of good quality. You can take minced meat from any one type of meat, for example, pork or lamb. But the dish will turn out tastier if you cook (or buy) mixed minced meat made from several types of meat. A great option: beef, turkey and pork in a proportion of one to one. However, mincemeat can be prepared according to your own taste, but it is better that it is fatty enough, otherwise the cooked dish will turn out to be rather dry. If only lean meat is available, it is worth adding butter to the filling to make the dish juicier.
The composition of the meat for zraz is exactly the same as for the preparation of cutlets. That is, in a meat (600 grams) scrolled through a meat grinder, it is worth adding onion, finely chopped (or grated), white bread soaked in milk (2 slices), salt and pepper. Bread can be replaced with semolina, which is soaked for half an hour in milk. For the specified amount of meat, you will need half a glass of cereal. Stuffing should be well knead and knock. The process of knocking out the stuffing is that the whole mass is collected in a lump and thrown into a bowl with force. You need to do this 10-15 times. Then the mince should be put in the cold for about half an hour.
In addition to mincemeat, for cooking meat zrazy, you will need to prepare the filling. There are plenty of options, you can choose to your taste. The classic recipe is chopped boiled eggs mixed with fried onions or green onions. You can use stewed cabbage as a filling, especially the spicy taste will turn out if you take sauerkraut. An interesting option is meat zrazy with mushroom filling. Any mushrooms can be used - fresh or frozen champignons, dried forest mushrooms or salted mushrooms. Mushrooms will need to be boiled (except for salted ones), cut and mixed with fried onions, you can add a boiled egg to the filling.
Boiled cereals are often used as fillings - for example, rice with butter and a boiled egg or buckwheat with mushrooms. And you can cook meat zrazy with cheese, putting as a filling a slice of hard cheese or a spoonful of soft cream.
Forming meat zrazy is easy. To do this, mincemeat is divided into portions, as in the preparation of cutlets. Then a lump of minced meat is placed on the palm of your hand and a cake is formed from it. In the middle of the obtained billet, a little of the stuffing prepared in advance is laid, and the palm begins to be squeezed, connecting the edges of the meat tortilla. We got something like a pie, but instead of dough we used minced meat.
If you intend to fry zrazy in a pan, then they will need to be rolled in breadcrumbs. But a more useful version of this dish will turn out if you bake zrazy in the oven. By the way, this method of cooking requires less trouble, because you will not need to stand by the pan, turn over the patties and make sure that they do not burn. Zrazy can be baked just like that or by pouring them with pre-sauce (sour cream, tomato or any one to your taste). And if during baking they are poured several times with allocated juice or sauce, the taste of the dish will be very delicate.
Zrazy can be steamed or stewed in a small amount of broth or salted water in a pan under the lid. In the latter case, the heating should be small so that the liquid does not boil away and the zrazy do not burn.
And with what will we serve meat zrazy, the recipe of which is given above? Garnish for this dish can be anything - potatoes, porridge or pasta. And if you used cereal filling, then the best side dish is a salad of fresh vegetables.