Who in kindergarten was frightened with cutlets from hedgehogs? And it wasn’t scary, but, on the contrary, unusual meatballs caused such a delight that mothers and grandmothers had nothing left to do but to stick apron and start cooking.
And there’s nothing so complicated in these funny meatballs, if the reward for the cook will be the happy faces of the guys who are full of food.
Stuffed hedgehogs with rice in the oven - general principles of cooking
• You can use fish, chicken or minced meat. The main thing is that it be juicy, otherwise the dish will turn out dry. To grind any product, a meat grinder is usually used, on which the smallest mesh is installed. But if in the kitchen there is such a device as a blender, it is better to kill the meat with them - hedgehogs will have a more delicate texture.
• For juiciness, onions are always added to any stuffing. It is pre-passaged in butter or refined oil. Together with onions, rice is also mixed in the meat mass.
• In order for the patterns to come out imitating the needles, the rice is added raw or only slightly welded. Flushing cereals or not is a moot point. Water leaches starch from it, connecting pieces of meat with each other.
• Spices with a pronounced taste and aroma are not used. Minced meat is usually seasoned with ground pepper and necessarily salted. You should not add a lot of salt, as gravy and sauces in which hedgehogs are prepared are added separately.
• Sauces and gravy for hedgehogs are universal. In a single dressing you can cook a dish of different varieties of meat. Their base may be water or broth. Sour cream, cream, tomato gives a special taste to such dressings, and they use both tomato paste and fresh, even slightly ripened tomatoes. For density, add flour to the dressing.
• Sauces and gravy, like minced meat, season with ground pepper. Often they are supplemented with dried or fresh herbs. Since hedgehogs do not pre-fry like meatballs, dressings should be carefully added. A stream of liquid is directed into the spaces between the balls so as not to violate their integrity.
• Pasta, cereals or mashed potatoes are suitable as a side dish for minced hedgehogs. They are served on their own, with fresh vegetables.
Minced hedgehogs with rice in the oven in tomato sauce
Ingredients:
• half a kilo of meatless minced meat;
• half a glass of round grain rice;
• two large onion heads;
• one egg;
• three fresh tomatoes;
• a spoon of flour;
• small carrot;
• granulated sugar;
• dried and chopped dill.
Cooking method:
1. Boil the sorted rice until half cooked. We rinse under running water and put it on a colander so that all excess moisture comes off.
2. Transfer dried rice to a suitable bowl, add minced meat and a raw egg. Here we rub one onion through a fine grater. If the minced meat was prepared independently, it is better to twist the onions in a meat grinder after the meat. Season the meat mass with ground pepper, add a little and knead everything well.
3. With moistened hands, we roll small balls out of the minced meat and put it into a wide container with high sides. Ideally, lay them in one row, but if there is no suitable capacity, it is possible in two "floors".
4. In a deep pan, pour a little more than a spoonful of oil and heat it well over low heat. Finely chop the remaining onion, put the slices in a pan and heat until transparent. Add large carrot chips and continue to cook occasionally stirring.
5. Remove the peel from the tomatoes, rub the pulp on a grater. You can mashed tomatoes with a blender. Pour the tomato puree to the vegetable frying, as soon as the vegetables in the pan turn to amber color. Stew for two minutes and pour in the flour diluted with 50 ml of water. Stirring, we introduce in a thin stream into three glasses of boiling water, bring the gravy to a boil.
6. Remove from the stove, adjust the taste by adding sugar and salt. We introduce the dried dill and pour into the container to the hedgehogs, covering with foil, place for 40 minutes in the oven. Cook for at least half an hour.
Stuffed meat hedgehogs with rice in the oven with cream sauce
Ingredients:
• kilogram of minced meat mixed from pork and beef;
• four large onions;
• a glass of rice;
• the egg is fresh;
• three medium carrots;
• garlic;
• 60 gr. natural sweet cream butter;
• half a glass of fat cream;
• three tablespoons of good flour;
• five glasses of water or meat and bone broth;
• thick tomato - 150 gr.
Cooking method:
1. We sort the rice, pour into a colander with small holes or a sieve, scald with boiling water. When all the water has come down, transfer to a deep bowl. After cooling, add the stuffing and pour the egg here.
2. Finely chop two onions, transfer to a bowl with minced meat. Season with ground pepper, slightly add salt and mix well. If density allows, for juiciness you can add up to 100 ml of water.
3. Form small hedgehogs (balls) and put them in a single layer in a deep baking sheet.
4. Lightly chop the remaining bulbs. Spread in a pan and fry until transparent in butter. Add coarsely grated carrots, saute the vegetables until soft.
5. Slightly add the roast and push three garlic cloves into it through a press. We introduce the tomato, continuously mixing, add flour. We heat the fry for two minutes, and introduce broth or water into it. Be sure to stir so that the flour is well dispersed, and leave for 15 minutes, setting the minimum heat. At the end we introduce cream, add salt if necessary, season with pepper.
6. Pour the meat balls with the prepared sauce, cover the baking sheet with foil and set it in the middle level of the preheated oven. We notice 40 minutes to cook.
Minced fish hedgehogs with rice in the oven with cheese
Ingredients:
• minced fish, preferably cod - 400 gr .;
• half a glass of large rice;
• egg;
• 50 gr. white, slightly stiffened, bread;
• seven large fresh tomatoes;
• a spoon of refined oil;
• large onion head;
• cheese - 200 gr.;
• milk - half a glass;
• dill greens;
• Bay leaf;
• optional - garlic.
Cooking method:
1. Wash the tomatoes, after peeling them, cut into small cubes. The peel will be removed more easily if scalding the tomatoes with boiling water or soaking for at least two minutes in hot water.
2. Put a deep frying pan on a small fire. Warm some oil well and dip chopped garlic into it. Frying only about 30 seconds, add the tomatoes. We simmer tomatoes for 10 minutes, tightly covering with a lid, not forgetting to stir occasionally.
3. Cut the crusts from the bread, soak the crumb in milk. After 10 minutes, squeeze the bread with your hands and shift to the minced fish. Add the onion chopped on a grater, boiled rice until half-cooked, and break the egg. Seasoning with pepper and slightly salting, knead thoroughly.
4. On a medium grater we rub part of the cooked cheese (150 gr.). We connect it with minced fish, form small balls.
5. At the bottom of a large refractory form with high sides, apply a thin layer of butter. We spread the fish balls in one row and fill them with cooked tomato sauce.
6. Place the mold in a hot oven and cook the hedgehogs in the sauce for 35 minutes, withstanding heating to 180 degrees. Sprinkle with cheese chips and bring to readiness by putting in the oven for 10 minutes.
A simple recipe for minced chicken hedgehogs with rice in the oven
Ingredients:
• medium fat minced chicken - 450 gr.;
• one large onion;
• 75 gr. rare 20% sour cream;
• a raw egg;
• a small carrot;
• butter, 72% butter - 30 gr.;
• one and a half glasses of water;
• a spoon of flour;
• 50 ml of refined oil;
• long grain rice - half a cup.
Cooking method:
1. Lightly weld rice. We recline in a colander and, washing well, leave to dry.
2. Grind the onion, on a coarse grater three carrots. We spread the vegetables in a pan and sauté with the addition of butter until golden. Roasting should not dry out, so it is advisable to cover the pan and occasionally stir the vegetables. Cool the prepared roast well and, together with the rice, transfer to the stuffing.
3. Sprinkle with a quarter of a spoon of ground pepper. Stir thoroughly, introduce a raw egg and a little salt.
4. Wet hands and form balls of meat of the same size. We spread them in a deep refractory dish (form) greased with vegetable oil.
5. In a small bowl, we spread sour cream with cold water, add flour and stir well with a whisk - there should be no lumps. Add sour cream filling to your taste, add pepper if desired.
6. Gently pour meat balls from a spoon with sour cream sauce, and simply pour the leftovers into the mold and place the hedgehogs in a hot oven. Cook for at least 35 minutes, setting the heat to 200 degrees.
Minced meat hedgehogs with rice in the oven with cabbage
Ingredients:
• minced meat - 500 gr.;
• 200 gr. fresh cabbage white cabbage;
• two large onion heads;
• 120 gr. long grain rice;
• sour cream, fat content from 20% - 3 tablespoons;
• one raw egg;
• 50 gr. flour;
• two tablespoons of butter;
• finely chopped dill - a small handful.
Cooking method:
1. First, boil rice. We sort through the cereal, pour over its bowl and, adding the butter, fill it with water. Liquids should be taken from the calculation of 1: 4. add a little salt and wait until boiling. At this stage, stir occasionally, prying a spoon from the bottom to separate the adhering grains from it. After boiling, reduce the heat and cook the rice until incomplete readiness. We rinse in a colander with warm water and let cool.
2. Fry finely chopped onion in oil until transparent, cool.
3. Shred the cabbage so that we get thin, short stripes. Coarsely chopped cabbage will not have time to steam well and make the formation of hedgehogs difficult.
4. Put the minced meat in a large bowl. Add the cabbage, ground pepper and sautéed onion, add a little salt. While stirring, we introduce dried rice. The mass should be thick, otherwise the hedgehogs can break up.
5. Moisten your hands with water and, separating the minced meat with a spoon in small portions, form the desired size balls. We lay them out on a cutting board.
6. Pour two glasses of water or cold meat broth into a deep bowl. Dissolve sour cream in a liquid, add flour and, carefully breaking the lumps, stir with a whisk. Salt, add a pre-shaken egg, chopped greens into the sauce and beat well again.
7. Pour the sauce into a refractory container and lower the formed hedgehogs into it. We cover with a suitable lid or sheet of foil and put it in the oven for exactly an hour. A dish is being prepared at 200 degrees.
Stuffed hedgehogs with rice in the oven with thick mushroom sauce
Ingredients:
• medium fat minced meat - 600 gr.;
• 100 gr. large whole rice;
• large carrot;
• 300 gr. fresh medium-sized champignons;
• two and a half tablespoons of frozen cream or butter;
• 80 gr. flour;
• refined sunflower oil;
• half a liter of broth or water;
• 2 lettuce bulbs.
Cooking method:
1. Shred the onion in half rings, cut the mushrooms into slices, chop the carrots with a coarse grater.
2. In a pan, well heat up no more than a spoonful of vegetable and dip butter in it. We are waiting for it to melt. First put the carrots and onions in the fat mixture. Frying vegetables to transparency, put mushrooms to them and simmer in the allocated juice until it evaporates. At the very end we add a little bit. We spread the vegetables fried with mushrooms in an even layer along the bottom of the refractory form.
3. Weld rice in brackish water and transfer to a colander.
4. Pass the chopped onion in butter until transparent. We cool and mix with the rice in the minced meat. Pre-salted meat and season with pepper. We fashion small hedgehogs and put them on a vegetable pillow.
5. Pour flour into a dry frying pan, and butter on top. Turn on medium heat and, stirring continuously, warm up for five minutes. Without stopping warming and stirring, pour the broth (water) in small portions. In the process, add some salt to the sauce, and when it begins to thicken, remove from the stove.
6. Pour the sauce to the meat hedgehogs and put in the oven for half an hour, covering the form with a lid or foil.
Stuffed hedgehogs with rice in the oven - cooking tips and tricks
• It is advisable to cook any stuffing for hedgehogs yourself. In chicken, it is better to use the breast and fillet, cut from the meaty parts of the carcass. It is recommended to prepare hedgehogs from mixed minced meat, twisted from lean beef and fatty pork. Fish - from marine, not bony fish.
• When buying minced meat, it is better to give preference to chilled semi-finished product. In this case, its density and quality are immediately visible. Stuffed meat before use should be scrolled independently. It may contain large pieces.
• If the recipe requires adding raw onions, most of it is still desirable to fry it - hedgehogs will turn out to be more juicy. For the same purpose, in the meat or fish mass, you can put a loaf of loaf soaked in milk. In this case, they will keep their shape even better.
