Meatballs with Gravy in a Multicooker-Pressure Cooker

It is genuinely easy and beautifully simple to prepare meatballs with gravy in a multicooker-pressure cooker. The properly creamy sour cream-tomato sauce gives the finished meatballs a particularly pleasant balanced taste that pairs absolutely brilliantly with mashed potatoes, fluffy rice or pasta on the side at the family dinner table.

The whole recipe takes about 60 minutes from start to finish, which makes this an excellent weekday dinner option that comes together with relatively minimal hands-on work thanks to the multicooker. The recipe yields 4 generous servings (200 g each), perfect for feeding a small family. The make-ahead-friendly nature of the dish also makes it ideal for batch cooking for the week ahead at the office.

Ingredients

• pork minced meat - 300 g;
• large onion - 1 pc. (130 g);
• white bread - 1-2 slices (20 g);
• carrot - 1 pc. (80 g);
• garlic - 1 clove;
• semolina - 2 tbsp. (12 g);
• chicken egg - 1 pc. (45 g);
• sweet pepper - 1.5-1 pc. (100 g);
• vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. (16 g);
• black ground pepper - ¼ tsp.;
• paprika - ½ tsp;
• saffron - a pinch;
• green onion - 2 stalks;
• salt - ½ tsp.

Products for the sauce:

• tomato paste - 2 tbsp. (50 g);
• sour cream 25% - 1 tbsp. (20 g);
• salt - ½ tsp;
• garlic - 1 clove;
• bay leaf - 1 pc;
• basil - 2 leaves;
• water - 250 ml.

Cooking

1. First, cut a couple of slices of fresh white bread. Soak them in warm clean water for 3-5 minutes total until completely softened.

2. Place the pork minced meat in a deep mixing bowl. Peel the onion and cut off a little less than half from it. Grate the cut piece of onion and add the grated onion mass to the minced meat. Peel a small clove of garlic, grate it on a fine grater, and also add it to the meat mixture. Add salt and ground black pepper to taste, and crack in one raw egg.

3. Squeeze the soaked bread thoroughly and add it to the other ingredients of the minced meat. Also, add 2 tablespoons of leveled semolina and mix everything together. Knead the resulting mass thoroughly with your clean hands. Leave the minced meat with semolina in the bowl for 10 minutes total. Stir again and lightly beat. Then, with wet hands, carefully form balls from the meat mixture. Sprinkle the formed blanks with paprika and saffron on top.

4. Chop the remaining half of the onion into small even pieces.

5. Peel, wash, and grate the fresh carrot on a coarse grater.

6. Finely chop the green onion feathers with a sharp knife.

7. Cut the sweet bell pepper into small even pieces.

8. In the multicooker-pressure cooker, turn on the frying or baking function. Add the vegetable oil and the chopped onion plus carrot to the bowl. Sauté everything together until lightly browned across the surface.

9. Place the formed meatballs on top of the vegetables in the multicooker. In a separate bowl, dilute 2 tablespoons of tomato paste in 250 ml of hot water. Add salt and sour cream, mix well together. Now pour the sour cream-tomato sauce over the meatballs in the bowl. Add a few fresh basil leaves, the bay leaf, the diced sweet pepper, and the previously grated clove of garlic.

10. Close the lid, as well as the steam release valve of the multicooker-pressure cooker. Set the "Stewing" mode for 20 minutes total.

11. After the cooking signal of readiness, wait carefully for the steam to escape and open the multicooker lid.

12. Serve the meatballs with gravy from the multicooker-pressure cooker piping hot along with the rich gravy ladled generously on top. Bon appetit!

Tips and Tricks

Tip 1. Soak the bread crumbs in warm water before adding to the minced meat, since the soaked bread acts as a panade that produces noticeably more tender finished meatballs that hold together properly during cooking. The brief soaking step genuinely matters for the most beautifully tender finished texture every single time at home. Squeeze out the excess water firmly before adding to the meat mixture.

Tip 2. Form the meatballs with wet hands rather than dry hands, since the wet surface prevents the meat from sticking and produces noticeably smoother finished spheres. To pair these beautifully tender pork meatballs with another properly classic homemade multicooker dish for a complete weekday menu, try our beautifully aromatic chicken mince meatballs with rice in tomato sauce in a multicooker-pressure cooker as a poultry-based alternative for properly varied weeknight dinners.

Tip 3. Let the formed meatball mixture rest for at least 10 minutes before cooking, since the brief rest allows the semolina to properly hydrate and bind the meat mixture together cohesively. The brief patience step genuinely matters for the most beautifully intact finished meatballs every single time. The rest also lets the seasoning flavours properly distribute throughout the meat mixture.

Tip 4. Serve the finished meatballs with mashed potatoes, fluffy buttered rice, egg noodles or warm crusty bread alongside to soak up the beautifully rich tomato-cream gravy. For another properly classic homemade meat-and-vegetable dish to add variety to your weekly menu, try our beautifully tender chicken drumsticks with potatoes in soy-tomato sauce in a sleeve as a heartier baked oven alternative for properly satisfying weekend dinners.

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