Chirpan style meatballs

Chirpan¹ style meatballs
Traditional Bulgarian recipe

Ingredients for the meatballs:

350-500 g minced meat (100% beef for me)
½ onion
1 egg
2 slices of sandwich bread
1 tsp dried savory
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parsley
A little flour to roll the meatballs

Ingredients for the dish:

2-3 canned tomatoes and 2-3 tbsp of their sauce
800-900 g potatoes (as many as the pot can hold)
2 medium carrots
1 slice of celeriac
½ onion
1-2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp dried savory
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parsley
Oil and butter
Potato starch or potato flakes² to thicken the sauce (if needed)

Preparation:

Start by preparing the meatballs. In a deep bowl, mix the minced meat, chopped onion and parsley, egg, soaked and drained bread and spices. Mix and knead the minced meat thoroughly and shape into round balls of equal size. Then roll them in flour and let them rest.

In the meantime, prepare the rest of the vegetables. Cut the carrots into slices, the onion and garlic into small chunks and the celery into cubes. Peel the tomatoes and cut them into pieces. Boil about a liter of water.

Pour 1 drizzle of oil into a deep 3-liter saucepan. Cook the onion and garlic until transparent. Add the paprika, stir it in vigorously and once its smell switches from raw to cooked (max 10 seconds), cut the cooking process with a little boiling water. Then add the tomatoes and their sauce and more boiling water (enough to dip in the meatballs). Then, pop in all the vegetables and spices. The water should cover the vegetables. Let the dish simmer gently until the potatoes are well cooked through (65 minutes with me, another variety of potatoes should reduce the cooking time).

At the end of cooking, season the dish with fresh parsley and a little butter.

If the sauce remains too liquid, thicken it by sprinkling potato flakes over, spoon by spoon, while stirring. If you are using cornstarch, dilute 1 tbsp of cornstarch in 50-60 ml of water and pour into the sauce while stirring constantly. Continue cooking for a further 5 minutes.

Serve the dish hot, sprinkled with a little fresh parsley.

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 ^1. Chirpan is a city in Bulgaria
^2. Flakes for instant mashed potatoes