The Domestic Man’s Russian Cutlets (Котлеты)

Today’s post is a recreation of our friend The Domestic Man’s Russian Cutlets. His blog is a finalist for Saveur’s Best Food Blog Awards, and we’d really appreciate it if you could take the time to support him and our real food movement by voting for his website in the special diet category. You can do that here! On with the show…

When Russ shared this recipe a month or two back, I was intrigued (usual response). He always includes a brief, yet informative, history of a dish and what makes it stand out from just another meal on a plate. What really caught me was his description of the cutlet, “The word cutlet is a bit of a culinary mystery – everyone has their own interpretation of what it means.” While I’d like to say I try to experience as much as possible in terms of food, I couldn’t wholly appreciate what he meant by this sentence. I was thinking, “Oh, so it’s like a burger with some seasonings and a sauce that’s not ketchup, mustard, or BBQ sauce.” Wrong was I. These were not at all like a hamburger, and I’m glad they weren’t. I still love my burgers, but this was a treat.

We’ve adjusted the recipe to forego the sour cream (we used the solids from a can of coconut milk) and opted for ghee over butter, but this still stands firm as a hearty and delicious meal. Whether you follow Russ’ original recipe or our mild adaptation, I think you’ll be very happy with the results. We followed Russ’ recipe (noting our substitutions) so please go spend some time on his site and get familiar with his work. It’s worth keeping up to date on what Russ is up to.

Ingredients
For the cutlets
2 lb ground beef (we used angus because we were celebrating)
1/2 med onion, blended
3 cloves garlic, blended
1/2 tsp each salt, white pepper, ground mustard
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp ghee

For the sauce
1/4 C chicken stock
1 8oz can of tomato sauce
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp solids from full-fat coconut milk

Method

Blend your onion and garlic into a paste. We got out Heather’s hand-me-down Osterizer blender. It was pretty cool.

Melt your ghee over medium heat in a small saucepan and add the onion/garlic paste. Simmer for about two minutes, and then remove from heat.

Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Mix the onion/garlic/ghee mixture with meat and dry ingredients “gently” (we failed at this—go see Russ’s post for what it should look like) and form into 6 patties. Place the patties onto a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes and then broil for 2.

While the patties cook, in a skillet simmer the tomato sauce, chicken stock, and black pepper on low for 20 minutes. After removing the patties from the oven, scoop 1-2 Tbsp of the fat/grease into the sauce. Stir, add in the parsley and raise the heat to medium. Mix in the coconut milk solids, and top on the patty.