Bitochki

We all know about meatballs, right? We're all familiar with the Italian meatball and the American take on the meatball. But have you ever thought about a Russian meatball?

Usually when we think of meatballs, we associate them with spaghetti, accompanied by our version of a red sauce, some garlic bread (in my case grilled cheese) and a salad.
Add some fried fish and your go to go. Now I'm getting hungry.

So I'm thinking I can shake things up a bit and add a different flavor to an old favorite. For some reason, I don't know why, I chose Russian, well.... because, maybe Russian is one our least talked about forms of cooking. So I'll get out of the way and let you check out the recipe for Bitochki, a Russian meatball.

Ingredients:
1 lb Ground round
8 tb Butter
1/8 ts Nutmeg
Salt- to taste
Pepper-to taste
1 c Bread crumbs
1/4 c Fine chop onion
1/2 tb lour
1/8 c Dry white wine
1/2 c Sour cream
1/4 c Heavy cream

Method:
Add nutmeg, salt, pepper and 6T butter to meat. Roll into 8 balls. Coat with breadcrumbs. Flatten into hamburger shape. Score tops of patties in a crisscross. Brown patties in remaining 2T butter. Transfer to warm platter. Wilt onion in skillet. Sprinkle with flour. Add wine. When it boils, stir in sour cream. Add salt, pepper. Stir off heat one minute. Add heavy cream. Return to heat and bring just to a boil. Spoon over patties.

As you may have noticed, there's nothing about a red sauce or noodles for that matter, but I think that these baked with some noodles in cheese sauce with some garlic bread and a light salad would be great. Of, course this is just my opinion. You can add your own twist to this Russian dish.