Helen's Greek soutzoukakia .. meat balls in garlic sauce !!

HELENS GREEK SOUTZOUKAKIA

meat balls in garlic sauce

Welcome to my yummy world of cooking for my family something I really enjoy doing !!

Today I'm going to show you all how to make soutzoukakia  it's something like meatballs with a garlic sauce .They are sooo tasty !!

Well then let's get started you are going to need ...\

1 kilo of beef minced meat 

1 big onion chopped

1 cup dried bread crumbs

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup water (maybe a little less )

1 egg

parsley chopped

about one table spoon of each salt -pepper

1 table spoon of cumin

First put your meat in a bowl add all the above ingredients and mix it up well ... if you are  a bit squeamish use gloves ... I used gloves today to keep my hands clean to take the photos lol

when its all mixed up it should look like this

Now the next step is to make the meatballs ...but we dont want them round we want them more like oblong chubby things and to make them look really nice without getting sticky hands I have a little secret put a little oil in a bowl not much and every meatball you make put a drop on your hands see the photo below 

                                                          use about the size of a large egg for each meatball

now make all of them and put them on a tray or plate ,when you have them all made get out your frying pan we are going to part cook them to make them super tasty.put a small amount of olive oil in the pan and brown them lightly don't over heat the oil just enough to cook them lightly we don't need to cook them right through just enough to seal the meat .

                                                                                                                                                                         

        

Ok how are you all getting on when you have part cooked them put them straight into an oven tray  ...Don't throw the oil away in the frying pan  we are going to use it (if it has over heated and gone very dark throw it away and use fresh olive oil) ..In the frying pan you should have just about one cup of oil maybe even a little less if it looks too much carefully empty some out I did with mine today..... by the way the aroma coming out of my oven is sooooo good I can't wait to eat lol .

Ok back to cooking for the sauce you will need  .At this point turn your oven on to a medium heat mine is electric and I put it on 180

2 cups of tomato canned or fresh 

3-4 cloves of garlic

salt pepper

1 teaspoon of cumin

a pinch of oregano (optional)

2 cups of water

turn your frying pan on again not too high we don't want to burn anything  add the garlic then tomato ,salt pepper ,cumin and oregano add 2 cups of water and let it simmer for about 10 mins

Next step is too carefully pour the tomato sauce over the meat balls 

Now make sure your oven is hot and ready (that sounds a bit naughty lol) carefully using oven gloves because your oven tray will be hot from the hot food already in it ... put it into your oven close the door and wait for about 25 mins then again carefully turn your meatballs so they cook beautifully all over  let them cook about another 15-20 mins until the sauce looks nice and  well you know not watery just perfect .

Well then that wasn't to hard was it ??  

serve with rice or chips or mash or even spaghetti 

ENJOY !!

Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments below 

you can also find me here on facebook Helen's handmade creations