Slow Cooker Giouvarlakia – Meatballs in Egg-lemon Sauce or Soup

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avgolemono, crockpot, egg lemon sauce, Giouvarlakia, Greek, lemon, meatballs, minced meat, potatoes, slow cooker, soup, vegetables

For a while now I’ve been meaning to try and adapt this classic Greek recipe for preparation in the slow cooker. It’s one of those things I usually remember at the wrong time, like when I haven’t defrosted the minced meat. Finally, on Saturday I remembered to take the meat out of the freezer, buy parsley, and properly plan my experiment for Sunday. This had to be a weekend endeavour for me, as I knew the meatballs wouldn’t need all day in the slow cooker, and my working hours have me away from home for at least 9.5 hours on weekdays.

Giouvarlakia are meatballs made with rice in the mixture, cooked in water or stock and served (traditionally) in egg-lemon soup (Avgolemono). If you don’t fancy soup, this version makes the juice just thick enough to act as a sauce (albeit a runny one), ideal for being mopped up with fresh crusty bread. Chips (French fries) are also good vessels to use for plate cleaning in this case. The resulting meatballs are similar to the insides of these stuffed courgettes, but are much easier to make.

I started by prepping the veg, cutting it into fairly small pieces to cook quicker, and getting it going in the Crockpot. I then made my Giouvarlakia, slightly on the large side so as to delay cooking time a bit and allow enough time for the potatoes and carrots to soften. They were bigger than golf ball size, with about 3-4 level tablespoons of mixture in each one. The amounts stated below gave me nine meatballs. I used a 4 quart Crockpot and the meat, perched on top of the veg, was partially submerged in the 3 cups of water.

Slow Cooker Giouvarlakia

Serves 3

Ingredients

1 medium sized potato, cut into smallish pieces (approx. 3-5 cm or 1-2 inches)
2 small carrots, sliced
1 celery stick cut into chunks
3 cups of water or stock
500g minced meat (I used a mix of beef and pork, you can use just beef if preferred)
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 Tbs parsley, chopped finely
5 Tbs rice for risotto (Arborio or similar)
2 tsp salt, divided
¼ tsp pepper (I used white)
1 tsp olive oil
2 eggs
1 large lemon, juice

Instructions

1. Place potatoes, carrots and celery in the bottom of the slow cooker insert and pour in the water. If you want to help things along and maybe shorten cooking time, you can use boiling water. I used 2 cups cold, 1 cup boiling. Sprinkle one teaspoon of salt over veg and water. Turn on slow cooker to low.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the meat, onion, parsley, rice, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper and oil. Mix well with your hands till it comes together, but don’t over mix so the meatballs aren’t too dense.
3. Shape the mixture into meatballs and place on top of the veg in the slow cooker. Some won’t be completely submerged, that’s fine.
4. Leave them to cook for about 6 hours and check for doneness. You can use a thermometer or break one in two and take a peek. I find that the thermometer is best, as sometimes meat in the slow cooker keeps a sort of pinky colour, even if it’s well over the required temperature. Mine were in for 6 ½ hours on low and were done, as was the veg. During cooking (after about 3 hours) I also turned them upside down once, using barbeque tongs, but I’m sure they would have been fine even if I hadn’t disturbed them at all.
5. When the meatballs are ready take them out of the slow cooker with a slotted spoon (keep them warm as best you can, but don’t worry too much). In a mixing bowl beat the eggs and lemon juice till well combined. Place the bowl next to the slow cooker, and using a ladle, slowly add small amounts of hot juice into the egg mixture, beating continuously. Start with about one tablespoon at a time, and gradually increase the amount of juice added to the bowl. This is called tempering the eggs and it needs to be done so they don’t scramble. When most of the juice from the Crockpot has been transferred to the egg mixture, and the bowl feels warm to the touch, pour the mixture back into the insert. Take the insert out of the base and move it round a bit, so the sauce goes all round the veg, and place it back into the slow cooker.
6. Put the meatballs back into the sauce (or soup!), cover and leave for about 5 minutes till it’s all warmed through again. Keep an eye on it so the egg doesn’t misbehave!
7. Serve with fresh crusty bread and feta cheese.

Note: If you want to enjoy this as a soup, I suggest you use 4 cups of stock instead of the 3 cups of water.

Slow Cooker Meatball Mania!
Slow Cooker Meatballs with Orange Marmalade, by The Chic Life
Slow Cooker Asian Meatballs, by Taste and Tell
Apple, Turkey and Cheddar Meatballs Crockpot Recipe, by A Year of Slow Cooking
Almost Dukan Friendly Slow Cooker Turkey Meatballs, by On Top of Spaghetti

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Slow Cooker Turkey Meatballs – Dukan Friendly (Almost!)

Tags

crockpot, dukan, meatballs, minced meat, slow cooker, tomato, tomato sauce, turkey

You know the name of my blog, On Top of Spaghetti, right? It’s from the children’s song where a poor meatball falls off a plate of spaghetti and rolls away to a terrifying, squishy death. My first post was a recipe for meatballs in tomato sauce, and I’ve just realised that it’s now 6 months since I started this blog. So for our first half-birthday it seems appropriate to post another tomato meatball recipe!

This time it’s a Dukan Diet friendly version, made with turkey minced meat. Now, the “almost” included in the title is because this is fine for the Consolidation phase (last phase) but it’s a tiny bit naughty if you’re still on the Cruise phase. For those who aren’t familiar with this jargon, on the Cruise phase dieters can enjoy days of lean meat and non-fat dairy (pure protein) and vegetables, alternating with days of just pure protein. After moving on to the Consolidation phase they can have some additional treats like two slices of brown bread, a piece of cheese and a piece of fruit each day. There’s a lot more to the diet than this description, but I won’t bore you with it. If anyone is interested in details please feel free to email me. So, the ingredient that makes these Consolidation friendly only, is a teensy bit of parmesan. However, it’s such a small amount… let’s just say I won’t judge if you’re feeling rebellious!

The great thing about this recipe (apart from its tastiness) is that it’s made in the slow cooker, so it won’t send your home’s temperature through the roof. And you don’t have to brown the meatballs first! You can just plop them in and forget them till dinner time. Giving you enough time to go out in search of a beach.

My inspiration for these meatballs came from Gina over at Skinnytaste; I tried her Crock Pot Italian Turkey Meatballs a while ago and really loved them. This time I switched the breadcrumbs with oat bran, which is a daily Dukan requirement, and changed the sauce and seasonings a bit according to what I had in my cupboard. They turned out really great, and The Mister ate them up happily too (always a good sign).

Turkey Meatballs in the Slow Cooker
Serves 3-4

What you need:
For the meatballs
450g minced turkey meat
2 ½ Tbs chopped parsley
2 Tbs oat bran
4 Tbs grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 pinch of sweet paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
For the tomato sauce
500g tomato passata
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 ½ tsp dried onion flakes (or ½ small onion chopped)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar or equivalent sweetener (note: I was planning on using stevia but I forgot. We didn’t eat these the day I cooked them, so I added some when I warmed them up the next day and it was fine.)

What you do:

1. Add all the meatball ingredients to a large bowl. Mix with your hands until incorporated, but don’t over mix.
2. Form small meatballs with your hands, being careful not to pack them very densely so they don’t toughen up (great advice from Gina). Put aside while you prep the slow cooker.
3. Pour the passata into the slow cooker, add the tomatoes and the rest of the sauce ingredients. Mix with a spoon.
4. Gently place the meatballs into the sauce. It doesn’t matter if you have to stack them a bit, or if the top ones are not submerged. When they start cooking and firm up slightly you can mix them around so the ones on top can spend some time in the sauce!
5. Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours. Check for doneness with a food thermometer or by cutting into a meatball and checking there’s no pinkness.

Note: Gina has a stovetop version as well, in case for some unfathomable reason you don’t own a slow cooker!

Fried Meatballs And A Lack Of Inspiration

Tags

beef, fried, ground, meat, meatballs, minced, pork

Check out the beautiful plate! Old French porcelain, on kind loan by The Collector.

Lately I’ve been a bit stripped of inspiration. It’s probably something to do with the hundred thoughts swimming round my brain. There are so many ideas, so many things I want to be doing… but 8 hours of work a day seem to be getting in the way. When I was younger I used to say that I would always want to work, even if I won the lottery. Well, I have seriously reconsidered THAT! Oh to win the lottery… (chances are minimum as I don’t actually play it) my life would be so full I wouldn’t have time to miss work. First of all I would buy a horse. Although with the number of people giving away theirs at the moment, I wouldn’t even need to pay for it. You see the problem with keeping a horse here in Greece is, well, “keeping” it. You pay through the nose for livery, farrier, dentist, God forbid vet, lessons and someone to exercise your horse if you can’t. It’s funny, because if I didn’t work I’d be able to do some of that myself (even the mucking out!) and the fees would be fewer. So if I did win the lottery my expenses would be less – how ironic is that?

The other thing taking up my time would be this blog and a couple of other internet projects. I’d really like to pour more time and energy into these. Wow, riding every day, cooking, baking and blogging about all the recipes I’ve tried. Yes, that’s how I’d like to spend my days please!

Hmm, now how can I tie all that to fried meatballs? I won’t even try, as I explained, I’m currently inspirationally challenged. So here’s a recipe for some really good fried meatballs, which we usually have with boiled greens when The Mister’s mum sends some up from the village. You could also serve them with a chopped tomato salad or salsa, Greek yogurt and warm pitta bread. Ooh I know, you could open up a Cypriot pitta (yes, they’re different) and stuff it with these babies, salsa and yogurt. Mm, good idea – hey was that inspiration knocking?

The recipe is by the Greek chef Christoforos Peskias, and is included in the book “Greek Cuisine” a Gastronomos magazine publication.

Fried Meatballs
Serves 3-4

You’ll need:
2 ½ Tbs olive oil, plus more for frying (or you can use any vegetable oil for frying)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
500g minced meat (I use a mix of beef and pork)
175g bread without crusts, crumbled (make sure it’s stale so it will crumble easily)
1 egg
juice of ½ a lemon
1 ½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp dried spearmint
salt & freshly ground pepper
flour to coat meatballs

What you do:

1. Heat the 2 ½ Tbs oil in a frying pan over medium low heat, and gently cook the onion until it is soft and translucent (confession: up until a few months ago I thought that word was trans-cu-lent! Don’t tell anyone). Remove from the heat.
2. In a large bowl, combine the minced meat, the contents of the pan (onion and oil), breadcrumbs, egg, lemon juice, oregano, spearmint, salt and pepper. Mix with your hands and knead until well combined. Set aside for about half an hour allowing for the ingredients to mingle.
3. Get two plates and put some flour on one of them. Take a small amount of meat mixture and roll it in the palms of your hands to form a ball, about the size of a golf ball. Then roll it around the flour a bit, so it’s all coated, but shake or tap off any excess flour. You want to be careful not to have too much flour on it because it burns while frying and affects the taste. Place the floured ball on the clean plate. Repeat until the meat mixture is all gone. (Um, I assume I don’t need to tell you to throw away the remaining flour, right?)
4. Heat some oil in a large frying pan (here in Greece olive oil is used big time, although it is said it’s not good for frying, so I use sunflower oil – which is also cheaper). The amount of oil used will depend on the size of your pan, but basically you want it to come to at least half way up the side of the meatballs. My pan is quite large and I used about half a litre of oil. Heat it on high and make sure it’s hot before you start putting in the meatballs.
5. Add the meatballs to the pan one by one. For me the best way to do this is with barbeque tongs. Don’t crowd them, fry in batches if they don’t all fit in at once. Leave them alone for 2 minutes and then turn them so they brown on the other side. They shouldn’t need more than about 4 minutes in total, but check to be sure. Take one out, cut it in half, and ensure the centre is no longer pink. Don’t overcook them, they just need to be golden, barely brown.
6. Remove the meatballs from the pan and place them on a clean plate (yes I know, it’s a washing up nightmare this recipe) lined with a paper towel to absorb any oil.
7. Enjoy while warm, or cold, doesn’t matter they’re just as good.

Note: You’ll notice that none of my recipes include garlic. This is because The Mister detests it (note the bold italics). So I don’t even try to fool him by sneaking it into anything! You can add a clove to this recipe if you want, just mince it and cook it with the onion before adding it to the meat mixture.

On Top of Spaghetti

Tags

almond, baked, meatballs, recipe, spaghetti, tomato

Finally, I found a name for my blog. I’ve been thinking about starting this for months and months, but I hit a mental block when it came to choosing a name. I wanted something catchy, then I wanted something that would reflect my bilingual/bicultural background (Greek-English in case you’re wondering), then I wanted something catchy, then I wanted a food-pairing name like “sugar & spice” or “honey & thyme”… then I wanted something catchy. Then I gave up. I thought it would come to me. It didn’t. Today, I thought right, be proactive. So I turned to my buddy Mr. Google and just typed stuff in the magic box. Somehow this brought me to a nursery rhyme site and I got the bright idea to check food nursery rhymes. I was just about ready to name my blog Little Miss Muffet, when my eyes fell on the dreaded words… “On Top of Spaghetti”! The trembling started and I quickly grabbed the mouse to get away as fast as possible from the nightmare. Ok, I’m probably not making any sense right now; bear with me. When I was little, one of my aunties in England use to sing this to me. I hated it. It scared and depressed me, and made me cry. This, however, seemed to amuse certain members of my family! After all, it’s a song about meatballs, they were just teasing me (right?). Anyway for years since, whenever I’d hear the first few words I’d clasp my hands over my ears so hard I’d nearly squash my head flat. But today I thought this was a sign, an omen of some kind. Today I am meant to forgive the idiot who sneezed, and stop mourning over the loss of the poor defenseless meatball, whose life was so cruelly cut short. So I am facing my fear and in tribute, I am naming my blog after this tragic story.

And now, before you start recommending places with comfy couches (if you’ve even read this far), I’ll move swiftly on… This blog will be filled with recipes. Most of them will be other people’s, since I’m better at following instructions that creating things with my own imagination! The more I cook though, the more I’m getting a feel for doing my own thing, so occasionally there will be a triumphant creation or successful adaptation. There may be some flops too! I live in Greece but love all sorts of cuisines, so apart from say a spanakopita (spinach pie), I might also try a steak & ale pie. I hope you enjoy the recipes and tolerate the rambling.

My first recipe couldn’t be anything other than… “On Top of Spaghetti” (meatballs in tomato sauce). I found this on a great blog called Stonesoup, on a post with a collection of meals for a new mum (the author Jules’s sister). The idea was to make various meals ahead of Baby’s arrival, freeze, and enjoy at a time when cooking wouldn’t be an option. I found that to be one of the cleverest and most organized plans ever. There are quite a few evenings here when cooking is not an option so I made a big batch and froze half of it for a fuss-free after-work dinner another day. They froze fantastically. They are very easy to make and create a minimum of washing up. Win win!

Baked Meatballs in Tomato Sauce (very slightly adapted from this recipe on Stonesoup)
Serves 3-4
Cooking time about 1 hour

1 onion, finely chopped
1-2 Tbs olive oil
2 tins chopped tomatoes (you want about 800g)
1 tsp oregano or thyme or basil or mixture
1 tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp sugar
Salt & pepper
500g minced (ground) beef, or beef & pork mix
75g almond meal (I used no-skin almonds which I whizzed in the food processor as finely as possible)
2 tablespoons butter

1. Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium/low heat, and when it’s warm add the chopped onion. Cook gently, until it softens and becomes translucent
2. Put half the cooked onion in a big bowl
3. Add the tomatoes to the pan with the rest of the onion and turn up the heat. When it starts boiling add herbs, paprika and sugar, and season with salt & pepper. Turn heat down and simmer for about 10-15 minutes
4. While sauce is simmering preheat the oven to 200C (400F)
5. Place meat and almond meal in the bowl with the onion, and use your hands to mix. Form little meatballs no larger than a golf ball and put them on a plate
6. Place tomato sauce in an oven proof dish or baking tin. Place meatballs on top and scatter pieces of butter over them
7. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until browned on top and cooked through

Enjoy over spaghetti (of course!) or rice. Or mashed potatoes. Or even quinoa. They go with pretty much everything!

Sheesh, writing this blog is going to make me hungry all the time…