CookEat Recipe
Meat-Filled Potato Balls
Soft potato, egg and Parmesan dough enclosing a small cooked-meat filling, rolled into eighteen balls and fried.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 300 g potatoes; 2 generously heaped tablespoons grated Parmesan, about 25 g; 2 eggs; Salt and a small pinch of ground nutmeg; Plain flour as needed, starting with about 50 g and using as little as possible, plus a little for handling; For the main filling: 100 g already cooked veal, 10 g fat-and-lean prosciutto, 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion and 10 g butter; About 700 ml suitable frying oil, or enough for the pan; lard is an alternative.
Step 2
Make the filling first. Soften the onion in the butter for about 3–5 minutes, then spread shallowly and cool promptly. Finely chop the already cooked veal and cut the ready-to-eat prosciutto into tiny dice. Mix them with the cooled onion and keep refrigerated at 4°C or colder while preparing the potatoes. Use cooked meat that was cooled promptly and is still within its 2–3-day refrigerated leftover window. It will be reheated once inside the potato balls during frying. This cooked-meat filling is a practical choice within the source permission to vary the filling.
Step 3
Boil the potatoes until tender, about 20–25 minutes depending on size. Drain, peel while hot using a fork or cloth to handle them safely, and press through a sieve or ricer onto a lightly floured board. Let the strongest steam dissipate briefly. Make a hollow in the potatoes, add salt, nutmeg, the two eggs and Parmesan.
Step 4
Work in as little flour as possible to form a soft dough that can be handled with floured fingers. Start with about 50 g and add small amounts only if necessary; the required quantity varies with the potatoes and eggs. Roll into a log and divide into 18 portions.
Step 5
Make a small hollow in each portion with floured fingers, add about a teaspoon of the cold cooked filling and draw the potato dough over it to enclose completely. Roll into round balls with floured hands. Do not add an egg-and-breadcrumb coating.
Step 6
Heat the oil to about 170°C. Fry in small batches for about 4–6 minutes, turning, until golden and the centre reaches 74°C. Drain and serve hot as a side dish to another meat fry. Lard may replace the oil.
Step 7
For the source hen-giblet filling, replace the cooked veal filling with a professionally prepared food-grade set of one hen’s giblets, about 120 g including the liver, heart, emptied gizzard, trimmed comb and unlaid yolks when available. These are unlaid yolks, not incubated eggs; obtain the speciality parts ready for culinary use from a regulated supplier. Simmer the cleaned gizzard first in water until tender and at least 74°C, about 40–60 minutes; a prepared comb may be cooked with it until tender. In 10 g butter soften 1 tablespoon chopped onion, add the liver, heart and unlaid yolks and cook gently until each reaches 74°C, adding a little water if needed. Finely chop the cooked giblets, then add a thin slice of fat-and-lean prosciutto, about 10 g, cut into small dice. Heat the combined filling to 74°C, cool promptly in a shallow container and refrigerate. Fill, seal and fry the same 18 potato balls as above. The weights and times are estimates; this variation takes longer than the stated main version.
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