Ground meat patties

Years back Estonians used to call those meat patties “meat cakes” and served them only during holidays and special occasions because meat was something you couldn’t eat every day (people were poor and saved meat for special occasions). Today this simple dish is very common. So I decided to try it. Never done them before, but my mum prepared them often (still does), so I tried to remember, how did she prepare them. Finally I got some instructions from an  Estonian Cuisine cookbook.

500 g mixed ground meat (mix of ground pork and ground beef)

1 onion, minced

1 tsp salt

0.75 tsp pepper

1 egg

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

0.5 tsp chili powder

oil or butter

 

# Mince onion and mix with minced meat.

# Add slightly beaten egg, salt, pepper, chili powder and Worcestershire sauce. Mix well to combine.

# Take palm sized portions of the mixture and shape them into flat, round or oblong patties.

# Cook in hot oil on frying pan until brown on both sides.

# Place patties in roasting pan lined with waxed paper. Bake at 175 degrees C for 10-15 minutes.

As a result, you’ll get nice meat patties, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. And hand-made!

You should serve them with boiled vegetables or warm salad (such as warm potato salad) and some sauce (I used bechamell). Leftovers can be stored in the fridge (covered) for a few days. They’ll reheat well, but you can also eat them cold with a slice of bread.

Warm potato salad

This salad goes well as a starter or as a side dish. You can even serve it with some chopped bacon and onion for lunch. Ideally it should be served warm, but it tastes good when chilled as well. Very easy to make - and you can use up the boiled potatoes from the dinner the day before.

3 potatoes

1-2 carrots

1 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tbsp grated parmesan

1 tsp mustard

0.5 tbsp sour cream

some pepper and salt (but bear in mind that mustard, parmesan and mayonnaise will already give you a pretty salty sauce)

 

# Boil potatoes and carrots, chop and place into a bowl.

# Mix the sauce from the rest of the ingredients, warm it either in the microwave oven for about 20 seconds or in a saucepan and pour over vegetables.

# Give the salad a good toss and serve.