Keftedhakia

Fried tiny meatballs

This is one of those beloved childhood dishes that had been banned from the household menu.  The recipe I grew up with calls for a dash of cinnamon but the thought of cinnamon with beef totally freaks my husband out for some reason.  The mixture of those two ingredients makes a unique smell which makes me salivate while it turns my husband's stomach.  I believe that this was the exact dish which caused my husband to get the idea that I can't cook.  I can cook, jut not in the flavor palette that he is used to.

Also, throughout my childhood, we called this food Keftedes, not Keftedhakia as it is called in my recipe book.  Keftedhakia actually translated to 'small' meatballs.  Keftedes refers to the larger version of the same food.

I don't recall ever actually using a recipe when cooking this dish but I looked it up for the purpose of this blog and it turns out that I have been  sticking pretty close to this particular recipe.

I should have previously given my disclaimer:  Any recipe that I cook from memory will be the Cypriot version not the one from Greece.  I have several Greek cookbooks and when I am cooking from one of those, I will try to identify if it is from the Greek one or the Greek Cypriot one.

Ingredients:

One pound of ground beef (the book calls for minced pork)
1 cup grated potatoes (I was lazy and chopped instead of grated because I didn't want to clean the grater - grated is better)
1/2 cup of bread crumbs (I left these out because I couldn't find them - I later found some in the pantry)
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste

I began by chopping the potato and, parsley and onion.

The potatoes should have been chopped finer, or preferably, grated.

I threw all ingredients into a large bowl, leaving out the cinnamon so as not to freak out my husband when he came home and smelled the cooking odors.

You have to mix it all by hand, getting good and messy - it is just part of the recipe.  Don't try to cheat and use a spoon.

For Keftedes, make oval shaped and hamburger sized meatballs and fry one side at a time in a pan of hot oil.  For keftedhakia, make golf ball sized balls and deep fry in hot oil.

Don't put too many in the pan at once since that will cool the oil and they won't get the crunchy brown outside and perfectly cooked inside.

They are done when they are a nice, medium brown.

 Drain in a bowl (or plate) lined with paper towels.

These meatballs do not have a sauce and can be served hot or cold.  I think they are great for parties or a meal.

The Reviews:

I thought the keftedes turned out great except by taking a shortcut and not grating the potatoes, it was hard to make them into nice balls.  Also, bits of potato kept falling out while they were being cooked.  This gave me a bunch of yummy potato crumblies but I would have rather had them stay in the potato..

The kids ate a few but did not seem as in love with them as I was.

My husband came home from work none the wiser that I had cooked the forbidden keftedes in his kitchen.