Keftedes Recipe – Authentic Fried Greek Meatballs
I promise that this will be my last Greek food post for awhile. If you aren’t a fan… check back, I won’t stay in this rut forever!
Oh how I wish there was a way to make a meatball look prettier. The little sprig of mint on the plate helped, but still, the ol’ meatballs just aren’t looking nearly as good as they tasted. These are the best meatballs that I have ever made. The wine soaked bread and the fresh mint set them apart from your usual Italian balls of meat.
I do respect the sensitivity vegetarians have for animal life. But, I am omnivorous and must say that I enjoyed rolling these little balls in flour and frying them up to crispy perfection. Consider a batch of tzatziki for dipping and this Greek Peasant Salad
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Keftedes – Greek Meatballs
Description
In Greece, these meatballs are commonly served with french fries or potatoes. They go well with tzatziki and fresh, sliced tomatoes, red onion, or Greek Horiatiki salad.
Ingredients
3 cups stale white bread, cut in 1 inch cubes
3/4 cups water
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 Tablespoons butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 T salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon dried Greek oregano
2 lbs. minced/ground beef
1/2 lb. minced/ground pork
3 T chopped fresh mint
flour and olive oil for frying
Instructions
Soak the bread in the water and wine in a bowl.
Heat butter in a skillet and add onion. Cook a minute or two until just translucent.
Mix meats, soaked bread, onions, salt , pepper and mint.
Use your hands to combine well. Let the mixture stand for 20 minutes or overnight covered tightly in the fridge.
Shape into small meatballs or patties. Roll lightly in flour.
Fill skillet with about 1/2 – 1 inch of olive oil and heat. Shallow fry the meatballs until golden brown on all sides.
This looks like a high-yield recipe! How big were your meatballs and how many meatballs did you get out of the recipe?
Adding mint to meatballs…what a great idea! I’ve got this huge bag of mint in the fridge, and, well, you can’t live on mint juleps forever…
Adrienne, it DOES make a ton. I made about 1 1/2 inch balls and it made about 20 meatballs and froze some of the mixture. Cutting it in half would be easy. I suppose these recipes I have gathered are usually made and eaten by tons of family at long tables in Corfu.
I’ve (another) amateur question for you and your blog. What is minced meat? Can you buy ground meat and chop it further? I’ve no butcher shop nearby so am stuck with the usual grocery store type meat/deli options.
Thanks!
Oh, these look wonderful. I grew up in the Chicago ‘burbs, and many of my friends’ moms made minted meatballs, just like this. Delicious!
Did a search in Google Reader for “best meatballs” and guess who came up? Go figure that they’d be keftedes. Jason’s working through the in’s and out’s of dual citizenship and has subsequently been threatened with a draft into the Greek army (mandatory service). Initially I thought this might put him off his bi-homeland’s cooking for a few days but now we’re thinking we should fight olives with olives…something like that. Mint in meatballs…here goes!
When I was a child, I called these “get feathers”.