Inegol Meatball

We've been eating meatballs for a week now. Last Sunday I was able to make around 40 of them. I divided the meatballs into 5-6 groups, packed them using aluminum foil and put them in the freezer. They tasted great so we nearly had meatballs everyday for the past 6-7 days :). I got one pack out of the freezer each day and just popped them in the oven.

Below is the recipe. (You can find the recipe on the back of "Inegol meatball seasoning by Katmer" for the meatballs too)

Meatball Ingredients:
1) 2 lb ground red meat (try to get the most fat free meat)
2) Inegol meatball seasoning by Katmer (can be obtained from here.) 
3) Around 1 cup of water (put the water slowly so you can stop before the mixture becomes soggy)

Mix all the ingredients together. Then, take walnut-size pieces of the mixture and roll into small balls, and press them in between your palms or give them any shape you like as long as they are not too big :).

I added green peppers and onions as sides for the meatballs. 

Additional Ingredients: 
1) half of 1 green pepper
2) 1 onion or half of 1 large onion
3) Black pepper
4) 7-8 meatballs

Put the shaped meatballs inside an aluminum covered pyrex container. Slice the green pepper and the onion as you wish but don't make them too small. Put the sliced green pepper and the onion inside the pyrex container too. You can also put them on the meatballs for more flavor. Sprinkle some black pepper over the meatballs, the sliced green pepper and the onion. Place the pyrex container inside the preheated (you can turn on the oven after you're done with making meatballs) oven and cook at 450 F for about 20-30 minutes.

This recipe is of course not the traditional Inegol meatball however, we enjoyed it so much that I thought I should share it. It is an easy dish once you're done with making the meatballs and it is considerably healthy if you use the most fat free ground red meat you can get.

The traditional dish, Inegol meatball, comes from the city of Inegol located in Bursa, Turkey. I've done some research and found out that the traditional recipe of Inegol only contains salt, onions and baking soda (in addition to ground meat). Although the Inegol seasoning I bought had many spices in it we thought it was delicious. I'm hoping to make the traditional Inegol meatballs in the future and see how they taste when I make them :).

Almost ready to go in the oven

Last update: black peppers, now ready to go in the oven

I learned a couple of things while making meatballs.

First of all, the key ingredient a.k.a. the ground meat has to be good, otherwise your meatballs will not be tasty.

Secondly, you cannot put ground meat in the freezer first then take it out, make the meatballs and put them back in the freezer. This is not healthy! You can put the meat in the freezer only once. Either you place the meat in the freezer first then, make the meatballs and cook all of them or you get the meat from the supermarket, come home, let it sit in the fridge (not the freezer) until the "best before" date if you don't want to make them right away and make the meatballs then, put them in the freezer.