[Sca-cooks] Russian recipes- kotleti (sauce concern)

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Fri Jul 21 01:07:25 PDT 2006


Aislinn posted the Russian meatballs recipe she used for her feast:

<<< KOTLETI (Russian meatballs)

Kotletki is another word for meatballs (cutlets). The average meat- 
eating
Russian eats them at least 4 days out of 7. Foreigners visiting  
Russia for
the first time nearly always get the impression that Russians eat  
kotletki
every day. Kotletki means "little kotleti" in Russian, but the  
differnce in
size is quite slight. It is true that kotletki and kotleti are faithful
stand-bys to which Russian cooks resort more than half the time, year in
and year out - so a smart Russian cook dresses them up by serving  
them with
various sauces. >>>

<<< The standard sauce, as in the recipe below, is made by
stirring sour cream into the pan-thickened gravy.>>>

This dish sounds wonderful and want to try this. However, the use of  
"gravy" was setting off alarm bells in my head. We've discussed  
before that gravies don't show up until very late in period, although  
a recipe recently given here may push that back some more.
See:
gravy-msg          (8K)  9/ 1/00    Period gravy. Renaissance, not  
medieval.

However, in re-reading this recipe I don't see flour being mixed with  
drippings or something similar to make a roux. I see more of a sauce  
made with butter and consomme, water or sour cream and maybe the  
drippings from the meat?

Any comments from the experienced sauce/roux/gravy folks out there?

Stefan

<<< Variations of this are
made by adding any one of the following: sliced mushrooms simmered in
butter, finely chopped cooked celery, creamed onions with a strong
flavoring of thyme, onions simmered in butter with a little bit of sugar
and vinegar, or chopped raisins with vinegar and sugar.

1 1/2 lb ground beef
3 slices stale bread
1 small onion, grated
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 eggs yolks or one whole egg
4 tbsp butter
sifted dry breadcrumbs

The stale bread gives the best results when at least 2 days old.   
Remove the
crusts. Soak the bread in a little cold water, squeeze dry, and add  
to the
meat. Mix thoroughly until there are no lumps whatsoever. Add the grated
onion, salt, pepper and egg and stir at least 3 minutes. Now shape the
mixture into meatballs. You should have 12 of them. Roll them in the
breadcrumbs and flatten them into an oval shape. Criss-cross them  
with the
back of a knife. Heat 3 tbsp of butter very hot. Brown the koleti  
quickly,
about 6 minutes on each side. They will be best if you only fry 4 of  
them
at a time. As they get done, take them up and put them on a hot platter.
When all are done, put the rest of the butter in the frying pan in one
lump. Heat quickly. Add 2 tablespoons consomme, water or sour cream.   
Boil
up and pour over the kotleti. Serve at once.

Alexandra Kropotkin

I made the sour cream gravy for mine and added a little thyme to it. I
reheated it in a crock pot for the luncheon. These meatballs were the
first thing emptied on the table.>>>

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****





More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list