Porpetas, anyone?

[Symera]

Yia sou kai hara sou Kuklas!!

I'm looking for anybody's secret family recipe for Porpetas. I've never made them, but Yiayia and Mom did. I have a party coming up in December and I can't bear the thought of throwing Soutzoukakia at these people one more time ... I just know they'll run out of the room screaming.

I have really hunted all over the place and can't find anything that my mother had written down. I only remember her comparing notes with my aunts on the ingredients and quantities. Yiayia never wrote down her recipes - she had them all locked up {{pointing to my head}} in here. Like that does me any good now ...

Any suggestions or full up recipes would be great. we always made them ground beef, rice, maybe some nutmeg (?) or clove or cinnamon or all of them in what quantities, I have no idea. But, egg? I don't know. Bread crumbs? I don't know. So any assistance would be helpful.

Symera

[evelyn/athens]

Hi Symera. I'm not really sure what you mean by 'porpetas' as it's not a greek word (as far as I know LOL), and could be what your family called this dish. It sounds more Italian to me. But could it be a keftedaki/meatball? I'm guessing this from your description (although I don't use rice) and the reference to soutzoukakia.

Anyway, here's my recipe for Keftedakia (Greek Meatballs). If it's something else you're after, we'll have to do a bit of investigating.

[Syimera]

O boy ... I wonder if they are Turkish then. I have a recipe for Keftethakia, but I always like to see how other people cook them. but I'm going to see if my sister dug up my mother's recipe for Porpetas; I know I don't have it in my collection.

Stay tuned ... when I find it I'll pass it along.

[evelyn/athens]

could it be something like Youvarlakia Avgolemono (Greek Meatball-Egg/Lemon Soup) or Dolma (meat-filled)?

[Syimera]

Well maybe - as far as the meat and rice combinations goes, but Porpetas have cinnamon or nutmeg and I don't know which one (or maybe both) and how much - I'm wondering if it's likeyou said: that's what our family called them and they really don't exist outside of our family - wouldn't that be funny ...

[evelyn/athens]

well, this is getting more and more curious. Very interested to see where this will take us.

[Syimera]

OK - I found a recipe for Porpetas, but it's in Portuguese



And my sister keeps sending me soutzoukakia recipes.

I'm really beginning to wonder if I was dreaming or something. I think I'm going to try to recreate the recipe over the weekend.

Whadday think:
1 lb hamburg to 1 cup of rice or 1/2 of rice?

[evelyn/athens]

since I'm not really sure what porpeta are, and the texture you're after, I honestly don't want to make any suggestions...sounds like you'll be recreating this one from memory.

[Syimera]

I did more research last night and there is a Morroccan meatball that has similar ingredients, but includes mint. It called for 6tbsp of rice and 1/2 tsp Cinnamon and Allspice respectively. So I'm going to start from there, then sto tigani and see what I get - I'll let you know how they come out. They should be along the lines of a Keftethe, a little bit different shape and taste - I'll take pictures.


Ann ...

[KimC1021]

This is an old post but I was looking for variations of my family recipe for Porpettas and thought I would share. This is the Italian version.

We use left over Italian Beef, Steak or Roast. Cut up the meat into very small pieces. You'll need about 1 cup meat to a small 15 oz container of Ricotta Cheese. Add 1/2 chopped frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed out to reduce the liquid. Add 1 egg and 3 tablespoons Italian bread crumbs. Mix all ingredients well with wooden spoon or hand.

Take about 1/4 cup of mixture form a ball, like a meatball then roll it in Italian Bread Crumbs until covered completely.

Fry the balls in olive oil until bread crumbs are golden brown. Drain on paper towel. Then place balls in baking dish big enough to place all in 1 layer.

Add 3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste to frying pan used to brown balls. Add 1/2 cup of water over low heat for a few minutes. Then pour tomato sauce over Porpettas and bake in 350 oven for about 30 to 35 minutes.

buon appetitto javascript:emoticon('')
K Curtis