Hedgehogs in the oven: cooking features
Among the main advantages of hedgehogs are ease of preparation and balanced taste. Thanks to the addition of rice, the dish does not need an additional side dish, but people who prefer a more satisfying meal can serve boiled, baked or fried potatoes, pasta, vegetable stew with meatballs. Minced meat balls with rice are baked in a lot of sauce, they are never dry or tough. Crumbly juicy hedgehogs are very popular with kids, it is no coincidence that they are often included in the menu of kindergartens and sanatoriums.
To make the dish tasty and beautiful, it is better to take long-grain polished rice. Before being mixed with minced meat, it is boiled until half cooked, so the hedgehogs will become more tender and soft. However, some recipes involve the addition of raw rice, in which case the dish is baked a little longer. To maintain a beautiful shape, preliminary frying, rolling in flour or adding a raw egg to the minced meat is used. However, if the meat mixture turned out to be too liquid, you should not put an egg in it. A small amount of flour or an increase in the portion of rice will help to thicken the mass.
A very important point is the choice of tomato paste. It should be concentrated, not burnt, otherwise the hedgehogs will get an unpleasant bitter taste. A good substitute for pasta is natural tomato juice, fresh tomatoes or canned mashed potatoes with a minimum of vinegar and salt. Hedgehogs do not add a large amount of spices that clog the natural taste of minced meat. Main additives: salt, black pepper (peas or ground), fresh or dried herbs.
Hedgehogs can be cooked on the stove, in a slow cooker or in the oven. The latter option is convenient when you need to feed several people hearty. The dish is perfectly stored in the refrigerator, if the sauce thickens, when heated, it is diluted with hot water or milk.
Hedgehogs in creamy tomato sauce: a step by step recipe
A real classic of home cooking – meat hedgehogs in a thick sauce of sour cream and tomatoes. It is better to use minced meat, made with your own hands, consisting of equal parts of pork and beef. The meat will be juicy and rich in taste. Fresh tomatoes can be replaced with canned ones, in which case you will have to reduce the amount of salt.
Ingredients:
- 400 g minced meat;
- 200 ml of liquid sour cream;
- 0.5 cup long grain rice;
- 4 ripe fleshy tomatoes;
- 1 onion;
- vegetable oil for frying;
- salt;
- ground black pepper;
- dried parsley.
Boil rice until half cooked in salted water, drain in a colander and cool. Fry the onion in vegetable oil until transparent, mix with minced meat and rice, salt. With wet hands, form small balls and fry them in a frying pan from the onion until golden brown.
Cut the tomatoes, pour over with boiling water and remove the skin. Coarsely chop the pulp and mix with sour cream. If the sauce is too thick, add some milk. Add dried herbs, salt and ground black pepper.
Lubricate the refractory form with vegetable oil, lay out the hedgehogs and pour them with tomato-sour cream sauce. Close with a lid or foil, put in an oven heated to 200 degrees. Bake for about 25 minutes. Serve on warmed plates with plenty of sauce.
Hedgehogs with vegetables: beautiful and healthy
Meat hedgehogs go well with fresh vegetables: sweet peppers, onions, carrots, green beans, green peas. The dish is rich in vitamins and fiber, easy to digest and ideal for diet food.
Ingredients:
- 500 g beef fillet;
- 1 onion;
- 200 g long grain rice;
- 500 ml of meat broth;
- 1 sweet pepper;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 1 carrot;
- 2 large tomatoes;
- odorless vegetable oil;
- salt;
- ground black pepper.
Rinse the beef, peel off the films, cut into pieces and pass through a meat grinder along with onions. Add salt, pepper, washed rice, chopped garlic. Peel the carrots, grate on a coarse grater and also put in minced meat. Knead everything thoroughly, form small balls of the same size. [inset # 1]
Peel sweet peppers from seeds, cut into thin strips, scald tomatoes with boiling water, remove the skin, coarsely chop the flesh. In a refractory form, greased with oil, put vegetables, place meat balls on top, pour everything with hot salted broth. Close the form with a lid and place in an oven heated to 200 degrees. Bake hedgehogs for 25-30 minutes, periodically checking the liquid level. Serve with fresh sour cream and rye bread.
Hedgehogs with potatoes
Those who prefer more hearty side dishes will love potatoes baked in the same dish with meatballs. In the process of cooking, it is soaked in sauce, becomes tender and crumbly.
Ingredients:
- 450 g mixed minced meat (beef and pork);
- 60 g long grain rice;
- 170 g sour cream;
- 100 g of semi-hard cheese;
- 1 kg of young potatoes;
- 1 onion;
- 1 st. l. tomato paste;
- 3 cloves of garlic;
- odorless vegetable oil;
- salt;
- ground black pepper;
- dried parsley and dill.
In a separate container, mix sour cream, tomato paste, garlic, crushed or passed through a press, dried herbs. Salt and pepper to taste.
Peel potatoes, cut into halves or quarters depending on size. Put the root vegetables in a bowl, add a third of the sour cream sauce and mix gently so that the potatoes are well soaked.
Rinse rice and boil in salted water. Drain in a colander and chill. Finely chop the onion and add to the minced meat along with the rice. Mix everything thoroughly and form into small balls. Lubricate the form with vegetable oil, lay out half the potatoes, place hedgehogs on top. Fill the gaps between the meat balls with the remaining potatoes. Pour sauce over everything.
Close the form tightly with foil and put in the oven, heated to 200 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the foil, pour in the finely grated cheese and cook for another 10 minutes. During this time, the potatoes will be covered with a beautiful golden brown. Before removing the dish from the oven, check the readiness of the tubers, they should become soft. Serve hedgehogs with potatoes hot, supplementing them with sour cream, any tomato or cream sauce, fresh vegetable salad.
Chicken hedgehogs in tomato sauce
To make minced poultry juicy and rich in taste, it is better to use mixed thigh and breast fillets. A ruddy cheese crust gives the dish a special appetizing.
Ingredients:
- 700 g chicken fillet;
- 100 g long grain rice;
- 1 egg;
- 1 sweet pepper;
- 1 onion;
- 0.5 st. l. flour;
- 400 g canned tomatoes in their own juice;
- dried basil;
- salt;
- freshly ground black pepper.
Rinse the chicken fillet, peel off the films, chop in a food processor. If the meat is ground in a meat grinder, install the smallest grate and scroll the minced meat twice. Peel sweet peppers and onions, pass through a processor and mix with minced meat. Pepper, salt, add the egg. Sort rice, rinse, dry slightly, put in minced meat. Thoroughly knead the meat mass with your hands, form the same balls. [inset # 2]
Drain the tomato juice from the jar into a separate bowl, mix it with flour and grind so that there are no lumps left. Add flour mixture to tomatoes and stir. Put the hedgehogs in a single row in a greased form, pour in tomato sauce, sprinkle with dried basil. Bake in a well-heated oven with a lid on for 30-40 minutes. Serve with sour cream.
hedgehogs fish
An unusual but interesting dish is fish hedgehogs with rice, baked in a thick sauce. You can use any variety of not too oily fish: pike perch, cod, pollock.
Ingredients:
- 500 g fish fillet;
- 2 tbsp. l. butter;
- 2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil;
- 0.3 cups of milk;
- 0.3 cups of rice;
- 350 g of tomato sauce;
- 2 tbsp. l. wheat flour;
- salt;
- ground black pepper.
Rinse the fish fillet, dry it, pass through a meat grinder with a large grate. Rinse rice, boil in salted water until half cooked, put in a colander and cool. Peel the onion, finely chop and fry in hot butter until translucent.
Pour milk, fried onion and rice into minced fish, salt, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper to taste. Knead the mass thoroughly, form balls of the same size and roll them in flour. Fry the hedgehogs in the oil left over from the passivation of the onion.
Grease a saucepan or a deep form with vegetable oil, put meat balls, pour tomato sauce, lightly salt. Close the container with a lid or foil. Place in a well-heated oven, bake for 40 minutes. If the sauce boils away during cooking, add a little hot water or milk. Serve hedgehogs on their own or accompanied by baked potatoes.
vegetable hedgehogs
The dish harmoniously combines fresh vegetables and mushrooms. By adding different types of spicy greens, you can change the taste, adding new original nuances to hedgehogs.
- Ingredients:
- 100 g mushrooms;
- 1 carrot;
- 1 zucchini;
- 1 onion;
- 200 g long grain rice;
- 1 egg;
- 50 g thick tomato sauce;
- 5 st. l. odorless vegetable oil;
- fresh herbs (parsley, dill, basil, thyme, celery);
- salt;
- freshly ground black pepper.
Rinse rice, boil in salted water until half cooked, drain in a colander. Peel the onion and zucchini, finely chop, grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan, stir-fry onions and carrots until golden brown. Add finely chopped zucchini pulp, chopped mushrooms and rice, mix well. Form into small balls with wet hands and place in a greased ovenproof dish.
Dilute the tomato paste in a glass of hot water, salt and pepper. Pour the hedgehogs with the resulting sauce. If there is not enough liquid, add more hot water. Close the form with foil and place in the oven, preheated to 200 degrees. Bake hedgehogs for about 15 minutes. Take out the form, add finely chopped greens and put everything in the oven for another 5 minutes. Serve with fresh sour cream and thinly sliced grain bread.
