The Ultimate Greek Comfort Meal: Beeftekia Me Patates

Hi everyone, ya sas, kikalo sisete to another episode of Dimitra's Dishes. Today I'm going to teach you how to make one of my favorite comfort meals. This one just takes me back to my childhood. We're going to be learning how to make biftekia me patates to furno in a tomato sauce. So basically what these are are large meatballs or like mini meatloaves. You can look at it either way. And they're served with potatoes. They're made with a very light tomato sauce. And they're cooked in the oven until the potatoes and the meat literally melt in your mouth. This tastes delicious the next day too. So if you're meal prepping, make a big batch. Let's get started. Okay, so we're going to begin by making the biftekia. So I have two pounds of ground beef in a bowl. And in a food processor, I'm going to process one onion. I'm going to put it in a few pieces so that way it chops it up evenly. You want one big onion for two pounds. And I just cut it up in quarters and I'll pulse this until the onion is finely chopped. And then I'll add it to the bowl with the ground beef. Next, we're going to finely chop fresh parsley. So I'll just use the food processor for this. Since it's already being used and it's already dirty. I'll just take a big bunch of parsley leaving out the thick stems. I'll discard the stems and add all the parsley into the food processor and pulse it until it's finely chopped. Add that to the ground beef. I also added two garlic cloves that have been grated along with one and a half cups of I'm using panko breadcrumbs. But you can use Italian breadcrumbs. I prefer using unseasoned and then I like to add all the seasoning myself. One cup of milk. I'll add two eggs and just beat them in the side of the bowl so we don't have to dirty another thing. A heaping teaspoon of dried oregano, two teaspoons of salt, some freshly cracked black pepper. You can also add some crushed red pepper flakes into it for heat. And then I like to add a half a teaspoon of dried mint just for a little bit of freshness and for the flavor that Greek meatballs or kiftedes have. Mix everything all together until it's all combined. You can wear gloves to do this or do it with clean hands. Just mix it really well so everything combines evenly. And then you could either leave it aside so that way everything can come together and kind of marinate while you make the sauce. Or you could form the biftek at this point. You could do it in whatever shape you like. But the traditional shape is this oval type shape. You can make these as big or as small as you like. It's totally up to you. This is the size that I'm going for. And you can form these into patties like burger patties or the shape of bifteke like I'm doing right now. You can even shape them into little meatballs. Totally up to you. I like to shape them and put them on a baking tray that's lined with parchment paper. And every time I make bifteke I always make sure to make a second batch because they freeze beautifully and you can make so many things with them. I love making pita sandwiches with it and I'll show you how I do it in the end. It just takes an extra five minutes just to make another batch and it's totally worth it to have on hand for those busy days. So shape them all up and put them on the baking tray while we make the sauce. So the sauce is so simple to make. I'm going to finely chop an onion and put it in a saucepan with a little bit of olive oil. Cook the onion until it's nice and soft and slightly golden. Then we're going to go in and add one or two garlic cloves that have been grated. Warm that through until it's fragrant. Then I have 28 ounces of canned tomatoes that I've pureed because we like the tomato sauce to be really smooth in our home. If you like it chunky you can skip the pureeing part. You could rinse out the jar with a little bit of water. Season it with salt and freshly cracked black pepper. If you like the sauce less acidic you can add a half a teaspoon or one teaspoon of granulated sugar or some honey to it. I always like to add a bay leaf. Bring this up to a boil. Once it's nice and hot reduce the heat to low and let this simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens and the tomato sauce is also going to get a little bit more sweet like this. I just feel like it adds so much flavor. I have tried making this without cooking the sauce first and it comes out much more flavorful this way. So do cook the sauce if you have the extra 10-15 minutes. Then I have some potatoes that I've peeled. You can use golden potatoes or russet potatoes. I'm just going to cut them into wedges and put them in a baking pan. Season them with a little bit of salt. Freshly cracked black pepper. You could also add some oregano to them. Toss them up so that way they're perfectly seasoned. And then I'm going to take half the sauce and pour it over the potatoes. And then the biftecha are going to go on top and in between wherever there's room. So you can add all of the biftecha to your pan if you'd like or you can freeze the rest for another day. I'm going to leave it up to you. Add as many as you need. This tastes delicious the next day too. So you can feel free to make a big batch anyway because it just reheats beautifully. So at this point we're going to add the remaining sauce on top of the biftecha. Cover it with aluminum foil and my oven is preheated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. This is going to go in and bake for 30 to 35 minutes covered. And then I'm going to uncover it, remove the foil and put it back into the oven for another about 40 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender and the sauce is really nice and thick. As it sits the sauce is definitely going to thicken up a little bit more. So if you want more sauce you can add a cup, a cup and a half of water at the beginning of the cooking time. It's just totally up to you. It's time to serve this. It just smells so delicious. Every time I smell this aroma it just takes me back to my childhood. I love it. I don't know maybe that's why I love it so much but it also tastes delicious. My dad also makes things like this for us whenever we're in Greece. He does not cook his tomato sauce ahead of time and it still comes out delicious but I feel like when your parents cook for you everything tastes a hundred times better. Time for the taste test because I can't resist and you know that it's good when you just slice through the meatballs with a fork and they just fall apart easily. The potatoes should be really like falling apart too and mashing with the back of the fork and the sauce. The sauce is just so good. I could eat this every day. This, a nice lettuce salad on the side, maybe some feta and olives. Perfection. I think everyone in the family is gonna love this. The kids love it, the adults love it. It's just so comforting and delicious. You can make big batches of it. I always make a second batch like I said when we were doing the process of the meatballs because they freeze beautifully. You can put these in the air fryer to warm them through and make sandwiches like I did on the side. I made some sandwiches, some pita sandwiches. My mom made these sandwiches when we were little and she used to call them gyros. They kind of have all the flavors of a gyro except with a meatball in the center. They're so good. All you have to do is cook the meatballs in an air fryer. I didn't record that part or you can pan fry them on over the stove. You could even bake them in the oven until they're perfectly cooked on the inside. It takes 12 to 15 minutes in the air fryer at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I also made some french fries on the side, air fries that is. Very simple to do. And then once everything is ready, I warm up some pita bread, top it with some onion and tomato slices, those biftecha on top, and then I like to top it with the potatoes. You can leave the potatoes out if you want. And then lots of tzatziki. You can wrap it up in foil and take it with you wherever you're going or you could eat it as is. They're so good. Perfect for a busy weeknight. That's why I like to have these meatballs or biftecha on hand in my freezer all the time or as often as possible. When I'm running low, I always try to make a batch or two just to keep my freezer well stocked because life is busy. And it's so nice when you find things ready to go in your freezer so you can cook up a homemade meal for your family. I hope you guys give this recipe a try. If you do, let me know how you like it in the comments section down below. To print this recipe out, head on over to the Thank you for spending time with me today. I'll see you all next time. Yassas!