Hedgehogs are a very juicy and tender variation on the theme of meatballs. This dish is literally made for family dinners, suitable for even the smallest eaters. It owes its name to its appearance; the “needles” of the dish are provided by the addition of rice to the minced meat.
True, they will stick out funny only if you put the cereal raw, otherwise you will end up with ordinary-looking, but still very tasty meat balls. Moreover, the rice should be long, not round.
For minced meat, you can choose absolutely any type of meat or fish. The main thing is its juiciness. Therefore, we recommend not using beef in its pure form, but diluting it with pork or chicken.
To keep the hedgehogs in shape and increase their satiety, bread crumbs, flour, and breadcrumbs are often added, and carrots and onions will help make the taste fresher. This dish is usually not pampered with spices, limiting itself to the classic salt and pepper.
How to cook meat hedgehogs with gravy?
Although hedgehogs and meatballs are very similar to each other, we do not forget that these dishes are still different. Therefore, in this case, the meat balls should not be fried, thereby depriving them of their very essence - the protruding needles.
To make tomato gravy, you can use ground tomatoes, homemade juice or tomato paste.
Required ingredients:
- 0.5 kg minced meat;
- ½ tbsp. rice;
- 1+1 onion (for hedgehogs and for gravy);
- 1 cold egg;
- 3 tomatoes;
- 1 medium carrot;
- 1 tbsp. flour;
- salt, sugar, pepper, herbs.
Cooking steps:
- Boil the rice until half cooked.
- To form “hedgehogs” we take twisted meat, finely chopped onion, cooled rice, egg, add salt and pepper, mix thoroughly.
- We roll the resulting minced meat into small balls, which should be placed on the bottom of a thick-walled saucepan or pan. There will be quite a bit of gravy, so whatever the container you choose, its sides should be high. Ideally, lay out all the meat balls in one layer, but if this doesn’t work out, then it’s not a problem, we place them on the second floor.
- For the gravy, fry grated carrots with chopped onions in a frying pan; when the frying is ready, add tomatoes pureed in a blender or paste diluted in water. After a couple of minutes, add flour, mix and continue frying for about 30 seconds, pour in about 3 tbsp in a thin stream. boiling water, stir immediately, allowing the flour to disperse evenly, bring to a boil, continuing to stir.
- Add salt, dried herbs, spices and sugar to the gravy to your taste. The last ingredient is required, otherwise our sauce will lose much of its taste.
- Pour the sauce over the hedgehogs and simmer covered for up to half an hour.
How to cook hedgehogs?
Meat hedgehogs can be prepared from pork, beef, chicken or mixed minced meat, which is often supplemented with half-cooked or, less often, raw rice.
- Finely chopped onions, chopped in a blender or in a meat grinder, along with all kinds of spices, seasonings, garlic and herbs are added to the base of twisted meat and cereals.
- The seasoned minced meat is well beaten, divided into portions, from which round balls are formed.
- Sauce for hedgehogs is prepared from grated tomatoes, paste, sour cream, or by using two bases at the same time, mixing them in arbitrary proportions or focusing on the requirements of the recipe.
- The formed pieces are stewed in sauce on the stove under a lid, baked in the oven, and steamed.
- For the correct, spectacular appearance of the dish, it is necessary to use only high-quality long-grain rice.
Recipe for hedgehogs made from minced meat and rice
Hedgehogs, the classic recipe for which requires the addition of semi-cooked rice and is made with tomato sauce, are often served with a potato or pasta side dish or on their own, flavored with sour cream and chopped herbs. It is preferable to use minced meat from pork and beef, taken in equal proportions.
- minced meat – 600 g;
- rice – 6 tbsp. spoon;
- eggs – 2 pcs.;
- onions – 2 pcs.;
- carrots – 2 pcs.;
- tomato paste – 150 g;
- garlic – 4 cloves;
- water – 1 glass;
- oil – 40 ml;
- salt, sugar, pepper, bay, herbs.
- Rice boiled until half cooked, eggs, chopped onion, salt and pepper are added to the minced meat.
- The remaining onions and carrots are fried in oil.
- Add pasta, garlic, water and all seasonings.
- Bring the sauce to a boil, add balls formed from minced meat and rice into it.
- Simmer hedgehogs with rice covered for 15 minutes.
Hedgehogs in the oven with gravy
Minced hedgehogs made in the oven are as rich in taste and aromatic as possible. In addition, with this preparation it will be possible to avoid frying the ingredients of the gravy, which will make the final properties of the finished dish more dietary, healthy and save time. Instead of tomato paste with water, you can take tomato juice.
- minced meat – 700 g;
- rice – 200 g;
- eggs – 2 pcs.;
- onions – 2 pcs.;
- carrots – 2 pcs.;
- tomato paste – 200 g;
- garlic – 4 cloves;
- water – 300 ml;
- sugar – 1 teaspoon;
- salt, pepper, bay.
- To the minced meat add rice boiled until half cooked, one chopped onion, salt and pepper.
- Knead the mass, beat it well, roll it into balls, and place it in a mold.
- Add grated carrots and chopped onions.
- Mix water, paste, salt, sugar, laurel and pour into mold.
- Cook hedgehogs with gravy for 30 minutes at 220 degrees.
Hedgehogs in sour cream
Hedgehogs in sour cream is a recipe that provides the opportunity to appreciate the most delicate and delicate creamy taste among all variations of the dish. The thickness of the gravy and its volume can be adjusted at your discretion by adding more or less flour and adding more water or broth as needed. Fresh or dried thyme will add a special piquancy.
- minced meat – 1 kg;
- rice – 50 g;
- eggs – 2 pcs.;
- onions – 4 pcs.;
- carrots – 2 pcs.;
- thyme - to taste;
- flour – 2 tbsp. spoons;
- sour cream – 200 g;
- broth – 300 ml;
- butter – 50 g;
- salt, pepper, vegetable oil.
- Half an onion and carrots are fried in vegetable oil and transferred to a mold.
- Mix the minced meat with rice, boiled until half cooked, eggs, onions, salt and pepper.
- Roll into balls and place on a bed of onions and carrots.
- Saute the flour for 2 minutes.
- Add butter, broth, sour cream, thyme, seasonings, pour into the mold.
- Simmer the hedgehogs in sour cream sauce in the oven at 190 degrees for 20 minutes.
Hedgehogs in tomato sauce in the oven
Hedgehogs are a recipe that can be baked in the oven in a spicy tomato sauce with seasonings and Italian herbs. Here, fried vegetables are added directly to the minced meat, which makes the products themselves more juicy and original in taste. The proportions of meat and rice can be adjusted at your discretion.
- minced meat – 1 kg;
- rice - 4-6 tbsp. spoon;
- onions – 2 pcs.;
- carrots – 2 pcs.;
- tomato paste – 2 tbsp. spoons;
- water – 0.5 l;
- Italian herbs and coriander - 0.5 teaspoon each;
- salt, pepper, oil.
- Add fried onions and carrots, boiled rice until half cooked, salt and pepper to the minced meat, knead and beat.
- Form balls and place in mold.
- Mix water, paste, spices, pour into the preparations.
- Cook hedgehogs in tomato sauce under a lid or foil for 50 minutes at 200 degrees.
Hedgehogs in a slow cooker - recipe
Required ingredients:
- 0.5 kg headlight;
- 1 carrot;
- 1 onion;
- 1 bell pepper;
- half a multi-cooker measuring cup of rice;
- 40 ml tomato paste;
- 2 tbsp. l. flour;
- 100 g sour cream;
- salt, spices, herbs.
Cooking steps
hedgehogs in a slow cooker:
- We prepare cleanly washed and peeled vegetables: grate the carrots on a medium grater, finely chop the onion, cut the pepper into thin strips..
- Diligently and tastefully beat the minced meat on the table for a couple of minutes, add half of the prepared onion, rice, and spices to it.
- Saute the remaining vegetables on the “Baking” for about a quarter of an hour.
- While the vegetables are being cooked in the slow cooker, mix sour cream with tomato and flour, pour 400 ml of boiling water into them, stir until smooth.
- Place rice and meat balls on the vegetables, pour the resulting sauce and cook on “Stew” for 1.5 hours.
If you cook “hedgehogs” in the double boiler mode, you get a dietary or children’s version of the dish.
Recipe for hedgehogs in a frying pan
Required ingredients:
- 0.5 kg minced meat;
- 1 onion;
- 2 garlic cloves;
- 1 egg;
- 30-40 ml of tomato sauce or paste;
- 1 carrot;
- a bunch of greenery;
- 100 g rice;
- 2 tbsp. flour;
- 100g sour cream;
- ½ tbsp. water.
Cooking procedure
hedgehogs in a frying pan:
- Grind the peeled carrots, garlic cloves and onions in a blender or by hand.
- Finely chop the greens (dill, parsley), you can add basil to give the dish a Mediterranean touch.
- Mix the minced meat with vegetables, add raw or semi-cooked rice, herbs and egg. Stir, add salt and pepper. The resulting mass should be homogeneous, thoroughly mixed, and soft.
- We make neat koloboks, roll them in flour to give an appetizing crust.
- Fry the meat balls in oil on all sides. Our hedgehogs are ready! If desired, you can prepare the sauce.
- Mix sour cream, preferably homemade, tomato sauce, a little salt and hot water, mix.
- Pour the gravy over our “urchins” and simmer over low heat until the sauce thickens. Usually this action takes no more than half an hour.
Hedgehogs - recipe for cooking in a saucepan
This recipe is dedicated to all connoisseurs of simple, but very tasty and satisfying dishes.
To prepare it
necessary:
- 0.9 kg minced meat;
- 100 g rice;
- 1 onion;
- ½ tbsp. homemade cream4
- 2 tbsp. milk;
- 100 g butter
- 2 garlic cloves;
- 2 yolks.
Cooking steps:
- Grate the peeled onion on a coarse grater or pass it through a blender.
- Mix the minced meat with rice and onions until smooth.
- From the rice-meat mass we form cones 5 cm in diameter.
- Place a small piece of butter on the bottom of a thick-walled pan, after it has melted, place the meat balls on top, fill them halfway with water, cover with a lid and bring to a boil. After which the fire can be reduced to a minimum. The total simmering time is about 45 minutes, while the “hedge” should be turned periodically.
- Prepare the cream sauce in a small saucepan. Melt 50 g of butter at the bottom, fry chopped garlic on it, after a minute add cream, and after another couple - milk. Do not bring the mixture to a boil, simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes.
- Beat the yolks thoroughly, pour in the sauces, and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes. The main thing is not to let it boil! Add salt to taste.
- Remove the finished meat balls from the heat, pour in the sauce and let it brew.
Hedgehogs in sour cream sauce
Required ingredients:
- 0.5 kg minced meat:
- 0.1 kg rice;
- 1 egg;
- 1 carrot;
- 1 onion;
- 100 g butter;
- greens, salt, pepper;
- 50 ml tomato sauce;
- 200 g sour cream;
- 0.5 liters of low-fat broth;
- 1 tbsp. premium flour.
Cooking steps
“hedgehogs” in sour cream filling:
- We rinse the rice until it is clean, boil it, place it in a colander and rinse again, letting the excess liquid drain.
- Peel and chop the onions and carrots by hand or in a blender, fry them in half the oil.
- Beat the egg.
- Finely chop the greens.
- Add cooled rice, fried vegetables, tomato, egg, chopped herbs to the minced meat, add salt, pepper and mix thoroughly by hand.
- We form balls from the minced meat and fry them a little.
- Pour flour into a clean and dry hot frying pan, fry it until it acquires a golden hue, remove from heat, and cool. Separately mix sour cream with warm broth, pour the resulting mixture into the flour, stir until smooth, add salt.
- We put the “edges” in a deep form, not close to each other, and fill them with sauce. Bake in the center of a hot oven for about 45 minutes. Serve sprinkled with herbs, accompanied by vegetable salad.
Meat cutlets Hedgehogs with a side dish of buckwheat on the site
I remember, back in kindergarten, we children were fed, as it seemed to me then, simply amazingly delicious cutlets called “hedgehogs”. But no matter how much I pestered my mother with a request to cook the same cutlets at home, alas, she did not know the recipe. Now, after a lot of time on the Internet, you can find a recipe for even the rarest dish, not to mention the notorious “hedgehogs”. It was from there that I got the recipe for these delicious cutlets, which my own children are now addicted to. And I cook them according to this recipe. Product set:
minced meat (I cut pork and beef in half and add chicken breast) - 1 kilogram pepper salt large onion 1 egg water - 700 grams 250 g sour cream ketchup (tomato can be used) - half a glass sunflower oil (grease the baking sheet) glass of rice
Selection and preparation of minced meat
The need to select and process the tenderloin before preparing the ground meats depends on the meat you choose. When purchasing a product, pay attention to its freshness. Recently, meat markets have added a function for preparing minced meat, so if you don’t want to bother with a meat grinder, ask the seller to do it. If you want to do everything yourself, then the following instructions are for you.
Minced pork and beef
Perhaps the most popular option is to use beef and pork. Rinse the meat and cut it into small pieces. Pass them through a meat grinder along with a clove of garlic.
Chicken mince
This type of meat is dietary and is ideal for people on any diet. Poultry meat has a very delicate consistency, so in this case you can do without a meat grinder. Just cut the fillet into small pieces.
Additional Ingredients
To cook with rice, you need to read the recipe and prepare all the necessary ingredients.
Onions and carrots
Take a small onion and cut it into small pieces. After this, wash two carrots and grate them on a fine grater. Pour a tablespoon of vegetable oil into a preheated frying pan and fry the onion until golden brown.
After this, place the vegetable in a bowl with minced meat and fry the carrots in the same way. Remember that you need to constantly stir the vegetables, otherwise they may burn and instead of an appetizing and aromatic frying you will get bitter coals. After cooking the carrots, place them in the bowl with the minced meat.
It is necessary to choose this cereal correctly before preparing meat hedgehogs with rice. The recipe involves using classic white rice. During cooking, it swells slightly and acquires a sticky consistency, which will have a beneficial effect on the formation of balls.
You can also choose steamed long grain cereal. In this case, the rice will turn out crumbly and retain its original shape. It will be a little more difficult to sculpt from such a product.
Fill a small saucepan with water and add half a glass of rice. Bring the liquid to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. After this, drain the water and place the cereal in the bowl with the minced meat.
Egg
Take one chicken egg and beat it with a teaspoon of salt. The resulting mixture must be poured into a common bowl with food.
Meat in a pan)
A dish prepared in this way is considered dietary and contains a minimum of calories. You will need a narrow saucepan with a thick bottom and half a glass of water.
Place the required number of meat balls on the bottom of the pan and cover with water. If necessary, you can make several layers of hedgehogs. Place the dish on low heat and cover with a lid. Wait until the water has completely evaporated from the bottom of the pan. After this, you need to carefully remove the meat balls and serve.
How to cook hedgehogs
Products
Minced meat - 300 grams Rice - 120 grams or ½ of a regular 300 ml mug Onion - 1 medium Carrot - 1 medium Eggs - 1 piece Tomato paste - 4 tablespoons Salt, pepper to taste
- Put the rice to cook on low heat, fill it with 1 cup of water and cover with a lid. Cook for 10 minutes after boiling.
- Peel the vegetables and rinse under running water.
- Cut half the onion into strips and chop the carrots using a grater.
- Sauté the vegetables in a little oil until the vegetables begin to turn golden.
- Add tomato paste to the vegetables, stir and fry for a few more minutes until the tomato paste changes color.
- After cooking for 10 minutes, place the rice in a sieve and rinse a little under cool water.
- Cut the other half of the onion into small cubes.
- Place rice, onion and minced meat in one bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste and mix well.
- Heat water in a kettle, pour into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Separate small pieces from the resulting mass, form into neat balls and place in boiling water.
- After laying out the first layer of hedgehogs, wait until they turn gray and then lay out the next layer.
- When all the minced gray hedgehogs are boiling in the pan, add the frying agent to the broth and cook for another 10-15 minutes.
Meat hedgehogs with rice (recipe in a slow cooker)
In order to prepare this dish in a slow cooker, you need to make tomato sauce. To do this, take tomato paste and dilute it with water. Observe the following proportions: two parts tomato to one part water.
Place the meat balls in a slow cooker bowl and pour the prepared tomato sauce over them. This article has a recipe for meat hedgehogs with rice with photos.
In a multicooker, you need to select the appropriate cooking mode and place a bowl with meat balls in it. After this, wait for the special signal that the device will emit when the product is ready for use.
Rich tomato sauce (gravy) for hedgehogs
List of ingredients:
- tomato paste – 2 tbsp;
- sunflower oil – 1 tbsp;
- salt - on the tip of the knife;
- dried basil, ground black pepper, paprika - 1 pinch each;
- potato starch - 1 tsp. with a slide.
How to make delicious tomato sauce for hedgehogs
- And the secret, in fact, is that the tomato paste needs to be fried well. Pasta sauteed in oil not only remains red, but becomes even brighter, due to which the sauce will be beautiful and rich in color, taste and aroma.
- To do this, pour oil into a clean frying pan, add the pasta and, stirring, saute it for 5 minutes.
- Add salt and spices.
- After frying, simmer the hedgehogs with rice in hot water (2/3 cup). 10 minutes before the end of stewing, dilute the starch with cold water (3-4 tbsp) and pour it into the pan. Stir, wait for it to boil and then add the tomato. Reduce the heat and simmer the hedgehogs in the tomato sauce.
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Meat balls with rice in the oven
This recipe involves preparing a complex dish. You will need several peeled potato tubers and 100 grams of hard cheese.
Prepare a baking dish for the oven and line it with foil. This is necessary so that the meat retains its juice and the dish does not burn. Cut the potatoes into circles and place them in an even layer on the bottom of the pan. Place the required number of meat balls on top.
The oven must be preheated to 180 degrees. Place the workpiece and wait 20 minutes. after that, take out the baking dish and sprinkle the meat with grated cheese. Place the dish in the oven for another 10 minutes. After this, place the potatoes with meat balls on plates and serve.
Cooking minced hedgehogs with rice and gravy in the oven
The brass version of minced hedgehogs with rice and gravy can be called dietary. In this case, there is no toasting process. And everything else - the ingredients, the processes of mixing minced meat, preparing the gravy - is no different from cooking in a frying pan.
So, we have prepared minced meat, rice and fried vegetables. We also prepared gravy. Further:
- Turn on the oven to heat up, it needs to be heated to 180 degrees
- Prepare a sheet with sides, cover the bottom with a little gravy
- Form round hedgehogs with wet hands and immediately place them on the sheet
- Pour in gravy. Usually the tops of the hedgehogs peek out from the gravy.
- Cover with foil - this way the hedgehogs will steam better
- Place in a preheated oven for 45-50 minutes.
Minced hedgehogs with rice and gravy in the oven are ready! In this case, they are more consistent with the name. This is because they are laid in one row, and the gravy, as a rule, covers them only a third of the height. This option is good for baby food. Kids are crazy about the original appearance and eat with pleasure.
A few words about the gravy. Sour cream, mayonnaise, and various ketchups will be good as a main product. You can add your favorite spices, they will only enrich the aroma and taste.
It would be appropriate to say here that nothing can spoil a good foundation.
These are the signature hedgehogs in our family. Try it, you will definitely like it!
Ingredients
- For minced meat:
- meat - 800 g;
- rice - 1 glass;
- medium-sized onion - 2 pcs.;
- large carrots - 2 pcs.;
- eggs - 1 pc.;
- vegetable (or butter) oil - for frying;
- flour - for breading (optional);
- salt - to taste;
- ground black pepper - to taste;
- greens (for serving).
- For the sauce:
- water or broth - 3 cups;
- sour cream - 6 tbsp;
- flour - 2 tbsp;
- salt, pepper - to taste.
How to cook meat hedgehogs in sour cream sauce in a frying pan
To cook meat “hedgehogs” with rice in a frying pan, first rinse the cereal in several waters: each subsequent portion of water should be warmer than the previous one, the last one almost hot. Then fill it with water two fingers above the cereal and leave it to swell.
Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the onion. In order not to cry, you can slightly open your mouth and breathe through it, and not through your nose - it helps a lot! Lightly fry the onion in a frying pan in vegetable oil.
We clean, wash and grate the carrots, put them in a frying pan and fry in vegetable (or butter) oil until half cooked.
We grind the meat in a meat grinder. Which meat is best? It’s better to take a mixture of different types: pork, beef, poultry - it will turn out much tastier. Proportions are at the discretion of the housewife or according to what kind of meat was found in the refrigerator. If there is only one type, it doesn’t matter either. It is also recommended to mince ready-made minced meat bought in a store. Combine minced meat, finely chopped onion, fried carrots in one bowl, add eggs, salt, pepper and mix thoroughly.
Mix ingredients for sauce.
We form balls with a diameter of 5 centimeters. This will work better if you periodically wet your hands in cold water.
Lightly fry our “hedgehogs” in a fairly well-heated frying pan in vegetable oil on all sides. If you want to get a more dietary dish, then you don’t have to fry the hedgehogs.
Pour the prepared sauce over the hedgehogs. Heat over high heat until boiling, then reduce the heat. You can add fresh tomatoes or 2 tbsp to the sauce. tomato paste.
Simmer the dish over low heat for about half an hour.
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About 7-10 minutes before it’s ready, you can add finely chopped fresh onions, herbs, and seasonings to taste into the gravy. You can also add crushed garlic to the frying pan while stewing, which will give the dish a unique, very appetizing aroma. A few spoons of soy sauce will also add some piquancy to the gravy. Place the finished “hedgehogs” on a plate, pour the gravy in which they were stewed on top, sprinkle generously with herbs (parsley, cilantro or any other) to taste. You can decorate the dish with pieces of fresh bell pepper and tomatoes.
Hedgehogs with rice cooked in a frying pan are good on their own. But you can also serve them with mashed potatoes or pasta as a side dish. As you can see, our little prickly meatballs turned out beautiful and aromatic, so much so that they just ask to be put into your mouth. Bon appetit!
This is a very popular recipe in our latitudes, each housewife has her own, because almost everyone who has children prepares hedgehogs from minced meat and rice. Due to the fact that the dish contains rice, meat, and vegetables, and also because of the ease of preparation, delicious hedgehogs are an ideal dish for children and adults in every family.
After the main recipe with photos you will find several variations. They will come in handy if only because they will help make a familiar dish new. They will also be useful for those who do not like tomato juice. In any case, hedgehogs with rice are always tasty and satisfying.
Taste Info Meat main courses
Fkusnofacts
This version of cooking hedgehogs is distinguished by its dietary nature and speed of preparation. Classic hedgehogs are formed into large meatballs and stewed in a small amount of sauce alternately on different barrels.
For cooking hedgehogs, you should use round and medium-grain rice. Rice of these varieties contains more starch and better sticks the minced meat together during cooking - so you can wash it before cooking only 1-2 times, and not 6-7, as for cooking a side dish.
Measure out the rice, pour boiling water from the kettle into it, and leave for 20 minutes.
Add herbs, salt and pepper, seasoning, finely chopped onion to the ground meat, knead.
Strain the water from the rice, mix the cereal into the minced meat, then beat it 20 times.
Divide the minced meat into the required number of servings and roll into equal shapes.
Pour a little water into the bottom of a saucepan or deep frying pan and lay out the hedgehogs. Carefully pour boiling water from the kettle - above the top of the hedgehogs. Crumble the broth cube. After boiling, cover the pan and cook over low heat for 20-25 minutes.
When you want lots and lots of tasty hedgehogs and even more gravy, then it’s better to take a saucepan rather than a frying pan. Ideally, it should have a thick bottom and walls. However, it is still better to fry minced hedgehogs with rice first, so that later they do not fall apart during stewing. It is inconvenient to do this in a saucepan, especially if the quantity is large. They need to be fried in one layer, so if there is a large number of preparations, we will fry them in batches. Then put it in a saucepan and simmer in it until done.
As for the gravy, it can be completely different: tomato, sour cream, mixed (tomato with sour cream together), creamy, with or without the addition of vegetables. Below in the recipe with step-by-step photos I will show you how to cook hedgehogs in a tomato-vegetable sauce in a saucepan. And then I’ll give you a few more recipes for delicious sauces or gravies, as you prefer to call them, in which it’s good to stew our dish today.
Ingredients
- Minced meat (pork or mixed) – 0.5 kg;
- Rice – 0.15 kg;
- Oil (sunflower or olive, refined) – 50–60;
- Juice (tomato, unclarified) – 0.4 l;
- Onions – 1 pc.;
- Carrots – 1 pc. (large);
- Salt - to taste, but not less than 0.5 tsp;
- Pepper (ground) – approximately 0.5 tsp;
Cooking time: 20 minutes + 40 minutes for stewing.
How to cook minced hedgehogs with rice
The recipe for hedgehogs made from minced meat and rice differs from similar meatballs in only one way - to prepare them, the rice is not boiled first, and therefore, after stewing, the rice funny sticks out of the meatballs, resembling hedgehog spines.
For this dish I used mixed minced meat - pork and chicken 2:1. It is ideal if you prepare the minced meat yourself. This way you will be confident in the quality of the meat, especially if the dish is prepared for children.
Peel the onions and cut into small cubes. Pour 1/2 the amount of vegetable oil according to the recipe into the frying pan (I use refined sunflower oil for frying, odorless), place the onion in it and fry it until transparent. And then add the peeled, coarsely grated carrots and fry together until the carrots are soft.
Place the prepared minced meat, dry uncooked rice, and fried onions and carrots in a wide and deep bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste - it is better to use fresh, only ground salt and pepper, they highlight the taste of the dish more clearly.
Mix all the ingredients of our hedgehogs thoroughly. It’s most convenient to do this with your hands, so you can really feel how well the minced meat is brought to homogeneity. Some people add an egg to the minced meat to help bind the ingredients together, but I don’t use it as the egg white makes the hedgehogs tougher. The minced meat molds perfectly even without adding an egg.
Heat the remaining vegetable oil in a frying pan. With wet hands, form small balls 4-5 cm in diameter and place them in the hot oil. Fry on one side over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.
Turn the future hedgehogs over to the other side and fry for another 3 minutes. We do this so that after stewing, the hedgehogs keep their shape and do not fall apart.
Place the fried hedgehog balls in a thick bottom pan. If your frying pan is wide, you can stew the hedgehogs in it.
Pour tomato juice over the balls and add salt to taste.
After boiling, simmer the dish over very low heat for 40 minutes; the balls will increase in volume due to the fact that the rice absorbs the liquid.
Serve minced hedgehogs with rice in portions, hot with a side dish of fresh or baked vegetables. Top with sour cream or your favorite sauce.
Hedgehogs with rice in the oven in tomato sauce
Here, instead of tomato juice, we will pour a specially prepared sauce over the hedgehogs and simmer them in the oven. Our hedgehogs will be more “adult”, since children cannot eat a lot of spices. But they taste amazing and are very soft.
Ingredients for hedgehogs we will take the same amount of products as in the main recipe.
But let’s prepare the filling differently, for it you need:
- Tomatoes (canned, non-spicy) – 1 can (0.4 kg);
- Pepper (sweet, preferably red) – 0.15 kg;
- Garlic – 2 cloves;
- Onion – 1 pc. (large);
- Greens (basil, dill, parsley, cilantro) - 1 bunch, if not, you need to take - 1/4 tsp. each dry seasoning.
- Oil (olive, unrefined) – 40 g;
- Broth (vegetable, whichever you like best) – 0.4 l.;
- Coriander – 1/4 tsp.
- Salt (at least 0.5 tsp), and black pepper - at your discretion.
Cooking method:
- We prepare the hedgehogs themselves as in the main recipe, and then prepare the sauce separately.
- And we do it this way: first, fry the garlic in well-heated oil, but not for 1 minute. Then add tomatoes and spices (if they are dry), coriander, salt, pepper, simmer for 5-7 minutes, then rub through a sieve and put back in a hot frying pan, add finely chopped pepper to the mixture and simmer for another 7 minutes. After Add 2 cups of vegetable broth and if the greens are fresh, add them after chopping them.
- Now pour our sauce over the hedgehogs so that they are just covered. Place in the oven and simmer over low heat for no more than 40 minutes.
Serve the hedgehogs hot, topped with the remaining gravy or sauce. It will be very tasty and spicy.
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Hedgehogs with minced chicken rice and sour cream sauce
Not all kids love tomato paste; many refuse it. For those picky eaters, I suggest preparing tender hedgehogs with minced chicken and sour cream sauce. Minced chicken hedgehogs with sour cream sauce will turn out tender, juicy and incredibly tasty.
Ingredients for hedgehogs:
For sour cream white dressing you will need:
- Sour cream (not thick) – 150 ml;
- Broth (vegetable, thick) – 0.4 l;
- Flour – 20 g;
- Onion - half a large one;
- Salt, spices at your discretion;
- Butter (butter) – 40 g.
Cooking method:
- Chicken fillet needs to be ground into minced meat; if you have ready-made minced meat, you can use it. Add pepper and a couple of spoons of sour cream to the minced meat, and the same amount of softened butter (preferably butter) and leave to stand.
- Meanwhile, cook half the onion and carrots in a frying pan. Fry them until golden brown.
- Now add together the minced meat, onions and carrots fried in a frying pan, and dry rice. Salt everything and mix well, let stand for a while.
- Then roll into balls with wet hands and fry on both sides in a frying pan.
- While the minced meat is standing, prepare the sour cream sauce. For it, take the onion and fry it with oil in a frying pan until transparent. Then rub the onion with flour and mix well, carefully pour the sour cream on top in a thin stream and immediately add the boiling broth. Simmer everything in a frying pan for 10 minutes over low heat. Attention, add salt and spices only before removing.
- After the hedgehogs are fried on both sides, put them in a pan or pour sour cream sauce over them, and then simmer for 20–25 minutes over very low heat.
- Serve the meat hedgehogs with rice hot, pour over the remaining sauce. If you don't have it, just add sour cream. It will be very tasty.
Hedgehogs with rice and gravy in a frying pan
If you don’t want to bother too much with preparing the gravy, you can prepare this option; it will make the cooking shorter and require less time and effort.
Ingredients:
For homemade red gravy you need:
- Tomato juice – 0.4 l;
- Onion - half if large or 1 medium;
- Carrots – 1 pc. (small);
- Bell pepper – 150 g (1 large);
- Salt – 0.5 tsp;
- Pepper (ground) – 0.5 tsp.
Cooking method:
For this recipe we need a deep frying pan with a thick bottom. It is important that our rice urchins do not burn. And we can only cook as many hedgehogs as will fit in it.
Cooking hedgehogs:
- First, fry the onion until transparent, then add finely grated carrots to it and also simmer in oil.
- Next, in a large bowl, mix the minced chicken, dry rice, frying and 2 tbsp. l softened butter. Salt and pepper the mixture. Let our minced meat stand.
- At this time, prepare the dressing in a frying pan. To do this, fry the onion again and add coarsely grated carrots to it. Fry until golden.
- Then add very finely chopped bell pepper and spices, salt the mixture. When the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat slightly to medium.
- Next, we roll the meat mixture into hedgehogs and place them in our gravy in a frying pan. Now fry everything in a frying pan. Be careful not to burn the seasoning.
- When the hedgehogs are fried on both sides, pour tomato juice into the frying pan and add spices, again salt to taste. You can put 1-2 tbsp. l. butter or olive oil.
- Now close everything with a lid and simmer over low heat for another 30–40 minutes.
- Serve the hedgehog balls with gravy and hot.
Hedgehogs with bechamel sauce
If you decide to cook beef hedgehogs, then serve them with bechamel sauce.
This original sauce is very tasty in itself, and our hedgehogs with minced beef rice will acquire an exquisite taste with it. They can also be served at the holiday table.
Children will also like these hedgehogs with sauce if you serve the sauce with meat broth. For adults, I recommend preparing the sauce with mustard.
Ingredients:
- Minced meat (beef) – 0.5 kg;
- Rice – 0.15 kg;
- Oil (vegetable) – 70–80;
- Sour cream (thick and fatty) – 60 g;
- Onion (onion) – no more than half a large onion.;
- Carrots – 1 piece (medium size);
- Fill:
- Broth (we have meat, thick) – 0.5 l
- Spices at your discretion.
For bechamel sauce we need:
- Milk – 0.4 l (necessarily boiled);
- Flour – 80 gr.;
- Butter (butter) – 50 g.
- Pepper (black, ground) – 0.5 tsp;
- Walnut (nutmeg) – 1/4 tsp.
Add to the finished sauce as desired:
Cooking method:
- Prepare the ground beef and add sour cream and salt to it, let it sit for a little (10 minutes) and add the rest of the ingredients: dry rice, fried onions and carrots. Then we form balls and fry them in refined vegetable oil.
- After this, put it in a saucepan with a thick bottom and fill it with meat broth and spices (to your taste, I put bay leaf, celery and a mixture of peppers). Or we prepare a dressing from 0.5 liters of boiled water, butter and olive oil and pork fat (take 3 tablespoons in total) and 1 tsp. salt. We also add spices to the water.
- Then, put our hedgehogs in the oven and simmer for 30–40 minutes at 160–180 C. You can also cook over fire, but you need a saucepan with a thick bottom or non-stick coating. The fire here is weak.
- When the hedgehogs are ready, remove them from the heat.
Bechamel sauce
- Melt the butter in a deep frying pan and remove from heat. Now add flour to it and mix well. Put the milk back on the fire and cook until our sauce begins to thicken, now add the remaining milk and add pepper (ground), salt, nutmeg (grated). Let it boil some more and remove from heat. During cooking, the sauce must be stirred all the time, and it must be cooked only over low heat.
- And you need to take the milk already boiled, so it won’t run away.
- After removing from the heat, the sauce should be transferred to a dry container and allowed to cool. And only then add your choice of table mustard, tomato paste or meat broth. It is not necessary to bring the sauce to a homogeneous consistency. Let it be with beautiful red or mustard stripes.
When serving the hedgehogs, pour our sauce over them. It will be both beautiful and tasty.
Cooking tips:
- Always simmer hedgehogs until all the water has evaporated. They will be tight and will not fall apart.
- Make sure that the moisture evaporates, but the balls or mixture do not burn.
- If the hedgehogs burn, it means your heat is too high or the bottom of your pan is thin. Place a layer of grated carrots on the bottom of the pan, and place the balls on it, so they don’t burn.
- Cooked balls with tomato paste or sauce can be served without gravy or sauce, but those with sour cream dressing are always served with herbs or green onions.
- Pour the dressing so that it covers the hedgehogs by 1 cm. When the rice has absorbed the liquid by half, place a piece of butter on top of each hedgehog. It will be very tasty. Instead of butter, you can put a pile of grated hard cheese, which will then melt and the hedgehogs will turn out even tastier.
Recipe for minced hedgehogs with rice and gravy in a frying pan
I won’t be surprised if I say that the secrets of successful and tasty hedgehogs lie in minced meat and tasty gravy. How is my recipe different? By preparing that very tasty and unusual semi-finished meat product. I don’t put raw onions in it, but fried ones, and even with carrots. Agree that such hedgehogs will be much better. After all, it is the fried onions and carrots that give a special zest to the dishes. In addition, such hedgehogs will be softer and juicier. And it looks more attractive.
What kind of meat is best to use? What is in the refrigerator - pork, beef, chicken or turkey fillet. If you have a choice, then give preference to softer pork, taking into account the fact that the rice is laid in the floor raw. The combination of pork and beef will be wonderful. But even if you only have beef meat, fried onion will soften its dense structure.
What else is good about this recipe? Even if you have a small piece of meat available (you must admit that such situations exist), you can cook hedgehogs. And it’s okay if there is more rice than meat. In this case, onions and carrots will work great in minced meat; they will brighten up the situation. No one will even guess about the meat shortage. The finished product will be just as tasty and rich.
Having prepared the classic set of products once, you will be able to cook from what you have available the next time. In a word, by eye. Knowing the general principles, this is not difficult to do. This is what experienced housewives do.
Preparing a classic set of ingredients
- Meat – 800 grams (if you have ready-made minced meat, even better)
- Rice - half a glass (200 g glass). Long-grained will look more impressive. Just don’t take steamed
- Three large onions
- Three big carrots
- One egg
- Two tablespoons of tomato paste, or tomato juice 100-150 ml
- Mayonnaise - 50 grams Flour - 150 grams
- Vegetable oil - have 200 grams on hand
- Salt, ground black pepper, bay leaf
- Greens (parsley, dill)
- Sugar – 0.5 tsp.
Step-by-step preparation
- Start with rice. Our task is to cook half-cooked rice. More precisely, even raw, but slightly cooked. To do this, add the cereal to boiling salted water and stir. Wait until the water boils again, stir again and remove from heat. The rice will be quite raw, but already open for further manipulation. In this form, it will absorb more of the delights of minced meat and gravy.
- Place the rice in a colander and rinse. Set it aside and let it cool.
- Let's prepare the roast. Cut the peeled and washed onion into pieces and place in a heated frying pan with vegetable oil. Do not overcook; the onion should become soft and transparent.
- Grate the peeled carrots into strips. For this movement, the arms should only be from top to bottom.
- Add the carrots to the onions and lightly fry the vegetables together. I emphasize once again that there is no need to fry it too much. Vegetables should be soft and slightly golden.
- When the onions and carrots are sufficiently browned in the pan, take a little less than half of the frying into a separate bowl and set aside. Select the grounds, that is, onions and carrots. There should be little oil in the selected mass. To make it more convenient, tilt the pan on its side.
- Add mayonnaise, tomato paste or juice to the pan with the remaining vegetables, stir, and let it boil.
- Pour half a liter jar of water into the gravy, salt and pepper, add sugar and bay leaf. Let it boil.
- Now pay attention - when the gravy boils, be sure to taste it. It should have a pleasant sourness, with a distant presence of sweetness. You can’t call it sour or sweet, of course. But the presence of sugar should be slightly felt, this makes the gravy rich and piquant. If something is missing, add it. If there is a lot of acid, add water and a little sugar. The final result depends on the taste of the gravy.
- While the gravy is cooking, wash and finely chop the greens.
- Throw half the greens into the boiling gravy, stir, turn off the heat.
- Twist the meat into minced meat.
- In a convenient bowl, combine minced meat, rice, and cooled fried vegetables. Break an egg there.
- Salt, pepper, stir. Taste it. If there is enough of everything, let the minced meat stand for ten minutes. He will rest, come to his senses, and the ingredients will combine their efforts to achieve a good result.
- At this time, prepare a flat plate, pour flour into it to coat the hedgehogs, add a little salt and pepper. At the same time, prepare a saucepan where you will put the finished hedgehogs. Cover the bottom with a little gravy - this will act as a cushion for the bottom layer. Yes, when preparing the saucepan, take into account the fact that the hedgehogs will increase in size during stewing - due to the swelling of the rice.
- You need to form hedgehogs with wet hands, selecting 50 grams of minced meat. The shape can be round, in the form of meatballs. Elongated hedgehogs will also be interesting. It's whatever your heart desires. Roll the formed semi-finished product in flour on all sides.
- You need to fry the hedgehogs in a frying pan heated with oil on both sides until golden brown. Place the finished product immediately into the prepared saucepan.
- I do this: I pour the thick part of the gravy over the laid circle of hedgehogs, then lay out a new circle, which I also fill as it is filled. It turns out that each hedgehog is covered with onions and carrots. I pour the remaining gravy on top and gently shake the saucepan from side to side. This helps the liquid portion fill the entire space of the pan.
- There should be enough gravy to cover all the hedgehogs. If suddenly there is not enough, add boiled water and a little mayonnaise. It's okay, during the stewing process all the gravy will combine into a single whole. The ideal option is when hedgehogs feel free in liquid watering and do not come into close contact with each other. Then the rice has more opportunity to sharpen its needles.
Simmer our hedgehogs for about thirty minutes over low heat. Then be sure to let it brew. To make sure it is ready, carefully separate a few grains of rice and taste the cereal. If necessary, extend the simmering process. Serve the hedgehogs sprinkled with the remaining herbs. This is, well, very tasty. Soft, juicy and beautiful, hedgehogs will not leave anyone indifferent.