I had wanted for a long time to make the white, Constantinople-style soutzoukakia. I had never heard anywhere of soutzoukakia without red sauce.
A year ago I asked my mother-in-law to give me the family recipe for soutzoukakia from her mother, who was from Constantinople.
Her blunt answer followed her initial surprise: “With red sauce? My mother never made red soutzoukakia, in Constantinople they always made them white.”
Grandma Marika’s everyday recipe for soutzoukakia was well-kneaded minced meat with plenty of cumin, simply fried in plenty of olive oil and nothing else.
At other times, when there was more time or the occasion was a little more formal, the soutzoukakia had a simple white sauce made with olive oil, butter, extra cumin and wine.
The only change I made to the recipe was to add tsipouro instead of white wine in the final preparation.
The version with wine is also successful and tried-and-tested, but personally I prefer not to have the aftertaste of wine in the food. For my taste, it is better to have the intensity of the alcohol without any characteristic flavor, and for that my beloved tsipouro works perfectly.
In this white version, the soutzoukakia have a very nice moisture and a sauce that highlights the unbeatable garlic-cumin combination.
Although I also love Smyrna-style soutzoukakia with their thick red sauce, what ultimately makes me prefer the white version is the crispy texture from frying, which remains “untouched.”
Ingredients for soutzoukakia
- 600 g ground beef
- 3–4 garlic cloves (I used confit, it is more digestible)
- 1 tsp cumin
- 120 g crumb of homemade bread(country-style)
- 100 ml dry red wine or Mavrodaphne
- 30 ml olive oil
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper
- a little extra Mavrodaphne or olive oil for shaping
Ingredients for the sauce
- 50 ml olive oil
- 30 g butter
- 100 ml white wine or tsipouro
- ⅓ tsp cumin
With Foodurismo’s automatic ingredient converter, easily see how many grams or ml correspond to each cup. Try it here!
Instructions
Soak the bread in the wine. Place the bread crumb on a plate and pour over the wine, leaving it for a few minutes to absorb it.
Put the ground beef in a bowl.
Mash the garlic and add it to the minced meat.
Add the cumin, salt and pepper.
Then add the egg and the olive oil.
Crumble the bread with your fingers, letting it fall into the mixture along with whatever wine drips from it.
Knead the mixture very well. We want it to be homogeneous and fluffy.
Shape the soutzoukakia into an oblong form and arrange them on a plate.
It will help a lot if we have a little of the wine we used or a little olive oil beside us, to dip our fingers into.
Pour plenty of olive oil into a frying pan.
Let it heat well.
Place the soutzoukakia in the hot oil.
Let them brown well on all sides.
Take them out and keep them on a plate.
In a clean, shallow pot add the butter and olive oil. Let them heat well.
Add ⅓ of a teaspoon of cumin. Stir lightly to release its aroma.
Place the soutzoukakia in a row.
Deglaze with the wine or the tsipouro.
Lower the heat and leave them for 5 to 6 minutes for the alcohol to evaporate. Be careful that they do not stick to the bottom of the pot, shaking them often.
The soutzoukakia are ready.
Serve them hot with rice or mashed potatoes.
To stay up to date with everything new from us, follow foodurismo on Facebook, on instagram, on pinterest and also subscribe to the foodurismo channel on youtube
Find the recipe on our YouTube channel: