23 Jul Ukrainian Kotletki Recipe x FoodSaver

I’m not quite sure about the origin of kotletki, but you can definitely find a slightly different version of it in every Slavic cuisine. Even in various parts of Ukraine, they make them differently, using elaborate combinations of meat, bread, spices, and even grains. Usually, we serve kotletki without any sauce and consider them a lowbrow everyday dish. It’s simple, straightforward, and delicious.

Kotletki is the dish I grew up eating quite frequently. My mom usually served it with a side of buttery mashed potato, fresh tomato salad or some pickled veggies, depending on the season. It was and remains my happy meal, and it will always have a very special place in my heart. I always try to make a big batch of kotletki because I know that I can change the side dish, and every time get a completely different meal. I highly recommend you to do the same as a part of your weekly meal prep. It will save you a lot of time and effort during the workweek. Just microwave them and serve with salad, and you’ll get a homemade meal in only 10 minutes.

If you decide to take that approach, I feel like I need to tell you about how I store my kotletki to keep them moist and flavorful. And you can trust me since I’ve probably made a thousand of those during my life. I refrigerated them in glass containers, plastic bags, and even friezed them. In result, they lost most of its moisture and a decent amount of the flavor. But that was way before the FoodSaver came into my life. Now I can prep kotletki and vacuum seal them in a bag for later use, retaining all the juice and flavor. It’s safe to freeze, and sous vide friendly which makes weekday cooking even more effortless and much more budget-friendly.

Now I own FoodSaver FM2000 Vacuum Sealing System, and I use this baby at least four times a week. Freezing a fresh batch of kotletki – no problem, vacuum seal filet mignon for sous vide – absolutely yes, preserving avocado halves – easy peasy. I can’t imagine my life without this little helper. Another big plus of FoodSaver FM2000 is that it’s very intuitive to use. My husband can confirm that I hate reading manuals, and sometimes it backfires. But not with this device. The only thing you need to is to unpack it, plug it in and you’re good to go! Thet works perfectly for lazy manual readers like myself 🙂

Ok, now back to kotletki. I recommend thoroughly cook those bad boys and then vacuum seal and either refrigerate them or send to a freezer. You can use pretty much any meat which has some decent fat content. This time just had pork in my fridge, but a mix of half pork half beef works amazing as well. You don’t need to change any other ingredients. Just keep the proportion of the meat the same. It’s 1 lb for this recipe. Hope you’ll like this recipe and hopefully discover a new way to store your food while saving some money!

This post was kindly sponsored by FoodSaver.

Kotletki Recipe

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Ingredients

  

• 1/2 lb ground pork
• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 3 slices of white bread cut into cubes, no crust
• 1 medium yellow onion finely grated
• 1 medium egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 clove garlic finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg preferably freshly grated
• 1/8 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour for coating
• sunflower or vegetable oil for frying

Instructions

 

• In a small bowl combine bread and milk let it sit for a few minutes. Then take the bread out and squeeze excess liquid.
• In a larger bowl mix ground pork, beef, bread, grated onion, garlic, and all the spices. Mix well to combine the ingredients.
• Sift the flour in a medium-size shallow bowl or platter.
• Using wet hands form the pork mixture into oval patties, the size of a large egg.
• Coat them evenly with the flour
• Preheat a large skillet on medium heat. Add a decent amount of oil to cover the bottom of the skillet completely.
• Fry the patties on medium heat until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes on each side.
• Serve kotletki hot, with some mashed potato and pickles on the side.