Meat patties – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

Kotlety with Courgettes

This is a version of my kotlety – Polish meat patties, burgers or large meat balls.
Coarse grated courgettes are added – similar in a way to kotlety with sauerkraut.

Ingredients

400g minced beef or pork or a mixture
Breadcrumbs made from 2 fresh slices of white bread or 2 bread rolls
1 large onion – chopped fine – fried
2 – 3 courgettes – coarse grated
2 eggs – beaten
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Dried breadcrumbs
Salt & pepper
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Sunflower oil to fry

Method

Fry the chopped onion until golden.
Leave to cool completely.
Salt the courgettes and leave them in a colander for around 30 minutes.
Place the courgettes in a clean linen tea towel and squeeze all the liquid out.
Mix the mincemeat, breadcrumbs, onion, eggs and courgettes together well.
Season with salt and pepper.
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Make flattened round patties and cover with dried breadcrumbs.
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Fry on both sides in hot sunflower oil.
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Delicious hot but also great served sliced and cold with salads and bread.

Kotlety mielone – in Lager with Caraway

This is another variation on the theme of kotlety mielone – Polish meatballs or as they are called in the USA – meat patties and now in England as burgers.

I got this idea from my fellow blogger – Lithuanian in the USA. In their recipe for Meatballs in barbecue sauce – instead of bread soaked in milk – oats are soaked in milk.

This sauce is one I made years ago and have just come across it in my recipe notes & cuttings – it is super – how could I have forgotten it?

Ingredients – meatballs

500g minced beef
1 beaten egg
50g rolled oats
125ml milk
1 onion
1 tablespoon of caraway seeds
1/4 teaspoon of ground allspice
Salt
Ground black pepper
Plain flour for dusting
Butter for frying the onions
Sunflower oil for frying

Method

In a small bowl soak the oats in the milk for around 15 minutes.
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Chop the onion into small pieces and fry in some butter until golden.
Add the caraway seeds and ground allspice and mix well together.
Leave to cool completely.
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In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together, it is best to do this using both hands, making sure that all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Pour some flour onto a large plate or board.
Take a handful of the mixture and press it between your hands to make a flattened circle, place this in the flour and turn it over to cover both sides and edges.
Once coated place them on a tray dusted with flour until you have used all the mixture up.
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Preheat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
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Shallow fry the kotlety in hot oil, depending on the frying pan size, you can do 4 to 5 at a time, turning them over so that both sides are done.
Place them in a large oven proof dish, which has a lid.
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Pour the sauce over them, add the lid and put the dish into the oven.
Cook for at 75 to 90 minutes.
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Super served with creamy mashed potatoes, pasta or boiled rice – sprinkle chopped chives or flat-leaved parsley over them before serving.

Ingredients – sauce

300ml – 500ml of lager
300ml of vegetable or chicken stock (can be from a cube or powder)
4 tablespoons of soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
4 tablespoons of tomato purée
3 bay leaves

Method

Place all the ingredients into a sauce pan.
Heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
Bring to the boil.
Remove from the heat and pour over the kotlety.

Kotlety mielone-2

I wrote the post – Kotlety mielone quite a while back.

Kotlety is the Polish word for cutlets or chops however mielone means minced – so kotlety mielone are what in the USA are called meat patties or now in England as burgers.

These are a variation on the theme as I used English sausage meat rather than minced pork.

Ingredients

400g minced beef
250g of premium sausage meat (English style)
1 beaten egg
1 slice of white bread or bread roll, left for half an hour in a bowl with a little milk – do not use the excess milk just the wet slightly squeezed bread

1 onion finely chopped and fried till golden brown and left to cool.

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1 teaspoon of Italian herbs or similar
Salt
Ground black pepper
Dried breadcrumbs – home made – see Breadcrumbs – Bułka tarta
Sunflower oil for frying

Method

In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together except for the dried breadcrumbs, it is best to do this using both hands, making sure that all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.

If the mixture seems too wet then add a tablespoon full of dried breadcrumbs and mix this in.
Pour some dried breadcrumbs onto a large plate or board.
Try to make each one the same size, take a handful of the mixture and press it between your hands to make a flattened circle and then place this in the dried breadcrumbs and turn it over to cover both sides and edges.
*
Once coated place them on a tray dusted with breadcrumbs until you have used all the mixture up.
*
Preheat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
Shallow fry the kotlety in hot oil, depending on the frying pan size, you can do 4 to 5 at a time, turning them over so that both sides are done.
Place them on a metal baking tray and put these into the oven.
Keep adding to the tray until they are all cooked.

Super served with creamy mashed potatoes – sprinkle chopped dill or parsley over them before serving.

Here I served them with boiled potatoes and mushroom sauce and Carrot & Apple salad.

I also like them with any sauerkraut or cabbage salad see Sauerkraut Salads and Cabbage Salad.

The Next Day

You can eat any cold kotlety you have left with a variety of salads.

However I often re-heated them in a sauce in the oven – this time I cooked them in tomato sauce and served them with pasta – you can add some grated Parmesan cheese and sniped chives if you like.

Kotlety mielone

There is a little bit of linguistic confusion with this dish – I have noticed it in most translations for this recipe.

Kotlety is the Polish word for cutlets or chops as discussed in my last post.

Mielone means minced – so kotlety mielone are what in the USA are called meat patties or now in England as burgers.

My mother called both dishes kotlety – I would realise from the ingredients as to which dish was being prepared in the kitchen.

We had kotlety mielone once a week at home, any left would be heated up in a sauce, often mushroom, the next day.

In Poland they would have been made with minced pork but previously this was hard to get and my mother found it hard work to use a hand mincer, so she made hers with minced beef using the beef that the butcher would mince for her.

In her original recipe she would use an onion which was grated finely; this was the job that was often delegated to me! Later on she changed her recipe and would chop up the raw onion finely and fry this up lightly and let it go cold before adding it to the mince mixture. I now like this second version better, but both are good and you can even do half and half.

Nowadays I use an electric mini chopper to “grate” the onion.

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I used beef in this recipe for years and then tried pork, and also half and half; I like the ones half and half the best, however I always make sure it is lean pork mince.

Ingredients

500g minced beef or pork, or 250g of each

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1 beaten egg

1 slice of white bread or bread roll, left for half an hour in a bowl with a little milk – do not use the excess milk just the wet slightly squeezed bread

1 onion finely grated, or chopped and fried till golden brown and left to cool. (or half and half)

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1 teaspoon of Italian herbs or similar

Salt

Ground black pepper

Dried breadcrumbs – home made see Breadcrumbs – Bułka tarta

Sunflower oil for frying

Method

In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together except for the dried breadcrumbs, it is best to do this using both hands, making sure that all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.

If the mixture seems too wet then add a tablespoon full of dried breadcrumbs and mix this in.

Pour some dried breadcrumbs onto a large plate or board.

Try to make each one the same size, take a handful of the mixture and press it between your hands to make a flattened circle and then place this in the dried breadcrumbs and turn it over to cover both sides and edges.

Once coated place them on a tray dusted with breadcrumbs until you have used all the mixture up.

Shallow fry the kotlety in hot oil, depending on the frying pan size, you can do 3 to 4 at a time, turning them over so that both sides are done. Place them on kitchen roll on a plate or metal tray till they are all cooked – you can keep them warm in a low oven.

I usually serve them with creamy mashed potatoes or lightly buttered boiled rice.

Here they are served with a beetroot & apple salad see Buraki – Buraczki – Beetroots – Beets.

I also like them with any sauerkraut or cabbage salad see Sauerkraut Salads and Cabbage Salad.

Variations

Sometimes I add some finely chopped peppers or chillies to the mixture and serve them with boiled rice.

You can make the kotlety with minced chicken or turkey.

In Poland many people think that ones made with minced veal are the best.

Jasia’s Variations

My cousin Janina (Jasia is the diminutive) in her farm house in the Mazurian lakes in North East Poland made some kotlety mielone which had an addition to the usual recipe. Each one had a small piece of stuffing inside. The meat recipe was the same as was the method of cooking but when she was making them, she placed a little extra at the centre and this added an extra dimension to an old favourite.

The stuffing she used was one of the following:

A cube of cheese – the type which will melt like Gouda or cheddar

A chunk of pickled gherkin.

A thick slice of fried mushroom.

The Next Day

You can eat any kotlety you have left, cold with mustard and any salad.

However if I have any kotlety left, I often re-heated them in a sauce in the oven, my favourite is mushroom sauce.

I often just make a very quick sauce by frying up some sliced mushrooms in a little butter, adding some stock (mushroom or chicken – made from a stock cube). Add the kotlety into the pan and heat them through in the oven for around 1 hour.