Katletki!

Today I felt like cooking so I made a not-so-traditional version of one of my favorite Russian foods, katletki. It's pretty much just like Russian style meatloaf/hamburger patties. Japanese cooking does their own style of this and they just call it hamburg. There are a lot of variations, but I try to make mine ultra healthy with spinach, mushrooms, onions, ground chicken and egg. When I made them this time around I used so much spinach I was worried they wouldn't hold together, because the mixture wasn't very uniform, but they cooked up just fine!

Here's the recipe just in case you want to see how I made them. 

3 cups fresh chopped spinach (chopped medium-fine)

1 large onion, diced very finely

2 cups finely diced button mushrooms, or baby portabellos

2 large eggs

1 kg, ~2 lbs ground chicken (you can also use turkey, beef, whatever)

3 cloves minced garlic

salt and pepper

sides:

fresh cooked pumpkin

mashed potatoes

I start out by cooking the finely diced onions for about 6 minutes and then add the mushrooms and garlic and let those cook all together for another 5 minutes or so. Add salt and pepper to taste, but add a little more salt because this mixture is going to be mixed with the other ingredients.

Then I take a large bowl and mix the chopped spinach with the eggs. When the spinach is evenly mixed with the egg, add the ground chicken. It takes a little work to mix it all together, just do your best. Then add the sauteed mushrooms/onions/garlic. Don't worry about letting it cool, just mix it all together. 

In the same pan used to cook the onions, add another light coating of olive oil and spoon in 2-3 tablespoons worth of katletka mix and make a small patty. You can fit 3-4 in a medium pan at once. Cover the patties and let them cook in the pan for about 5-8 minutes on each side. I just flip them when they look lightly browned around the edges. 

Serve with mashed potatoes and whatever cooked vegetables you like on the side (I think steamed pumpkin compliments all the flavors really well). Or you can put them on a toasted hamburger bun with avocado slices or guacamole and jalapenos and some white cheddar. The burger version is not very Russian-y, but it's still delicious!

Making homestyle food is fun because I can share my childhood dishes with Bret and take a break from Japanese cuisine :) 

I also made a chocolate/vanilla layered zebra cheesecake for my birthday which was delicious....I'm going to make another one in March for a friend's birthday, so hopefully I make it pretty enough to post pictures. The original did not turn out very neatly, but it tasted really good!