After my first attempt making ground meat with a food processor, I became obsessed. I love mixing ground meat with all my favorite ingredients and tossing it on the grill, and it tasted so incredibly fresh when it came from full cuts that I wanted to try it with something more elaborate than your average burger. It was a warm night with no plans in sight, so my girlfriend and I decided we'd spend the night grilling and frying a meal that would beach us for the evening. The result was Mediterranean madness - fried feta balls, feta-mushroom pork patties with spinach, and a feta-olive dressing.
Check out all three recipes below if you want to make the full meal, and feel free to couple up this savory-salty Greekfest with a spinach side-salad or some grilled veggies - you know, help subside the guilt dripping from all this meat and cheese.
Ingredients (Fried Feta Balls):
1/2 lb of feta cheese, crumbled, at room temperature. DO NOT attempt while cold - the balls won't form!
1/2 cup of bread crumbs
1/2 cup of corn starch
1/3 cup of milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup of olive oil
1) Add the eggs and the milk in a small bowl. Beat until yokes are completely mixed
2) Take half a hand full and crumbled feta and squeeze with your hand to form tight balls of cheese. Make sure the balls are well-packed, or they'll fall apart while cooking. Careful - fresh feta will squirt
3) Coat the ball THOROUGHLY in the corn starch - you don't want any cheese leaking out
4) Dip in the egg/milk mixture
5) Coat in the bread crumbs by rolling them gently around in the bowl
6) Refrigerate for at least one hour
7) Take the now solid feta balls out of the fridge, and heat the olive oil in a large skillet until it bubbles slightly when flicked with water.
8) Carefully add the feta balls to the oil with tongs, turning occasionally until they are golden brown on each side.
Place on a plate and pat with paper towels. As anxious as you may be, WAIT before eating - they'll be hot as hell.
Ingredients (Pork Patties):
2 bonless pork chops
1/4 cup feta cheese
1/2 cup of Shiraz
1 oz of shitaki mushrooms, chopped and de-stemmed
3 cloves of garlic, chopped in half
1/2 teaspoon dried orgegano
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper powder
3 thin slices of salami, chopped into small pieces
1 cup of chopped spinach
2 large slices of tomato
salt and pepper to taste
1) Cut the pork chops into 1" cubes, and freeze for 20-30 mins
2) In a medium skillet, cook the mushrooms in the wine on medium heat until most of the liquid is gone. Remove from heat, set aside.
3) Place frozen pork pieces in food processor with garlic cloves until meat is well ground and the cloves can only be smelled, not seen
4) Mix ground meat mixture, oregano, cayenne powder, salami, feta and mushrooms together in a medium bowl.
5) Form mixture into patties about 1/4"-1/2" thick, and toss them on the grill at medium-high heat, flipping occasionally.
While this cooks, add the tomato and spinach to the top half of the bun, and mix the following sauce for the bottom half:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup roasted red peppers, chopped
8 oz of feta, crumbled
1/2 cup of kalamata olives, chopped
Mix well and add to the bottom half of the bun.
And homemade Mediterranean Madness is complete! Plant yourself in your most comfortable chair, pour the rest of the bottle of Shiraz, and don't plan on moving for the next 3 hours - you'll feel like you swallowed the most delicious of bowling balls, but I promise, you won't regret it.
Questions? Additions? Comment below, or email CutsEverday@gmail.com.
Great recipe, looks delicious. Thanks for sharing, will try this at home.
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