Tefteli Always Make Me Feel Better

a little comfort when I need it the most

I’m home. And I don’t mean “home” as in the Greenpoint apartment I’ve lived in and called home for the past 4 years but HOME home, as in my parents’ house in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. I didn’t plan this trip but then again I didn’t plan much of what happened this month. All I know is that I’m home, sleeping in my childhood bed with a comforter and a fuzzy blanket because Russians are never content with just one form of bed covering, wearing random sweatpants I found in a drawer that probably belonged to a high school friend I don’t talk to anymore.

Every time I visit my parents house (which is still my house according to my expired Ohio drivers’ license) my mom asks what she should make for my arrival because obviously she will be force-feeding me the second I walk through the door. She, like most of us Fedners, shows her love through food. And she makes *a lot* of really amazing things. But on this particular occasion, I knew that the only food that could begin to make me feel whole again would be tefteli, otherwise known as Russian meatballs. 

My mom’s tefteli are made of turkey and rice. They are soft and supple and warm; the food equivalent of one of her hugs when she’s dressed in her signature fuzzy chalat (robe), fresh out of the shower, hair wet and smelling of Dove soap. They’re nostalgia and comfort and they don’t even have to be as delicious as they are but I can assure you, they are f*cking delicious. 

A good (or bad, depending on how you look at it) habit that I’ve picked up from my mom is literally never using recipes. This is bad for consistency’s sake and bad if you, let’s say, need to write recipes for a living (lol) but also very good if it means you learn to cook in the way that really matters: by feeling, with soul, and from the heart. Predictably, her tefteli taste different every single time. Sometimes she’s experimenting with turmeric (very good for its anti-inflammatory properties, according to Alla), sometimes she uses zucchini instead of rice as a filler (mom loves a low carb moment), and on this particular occasion she went hard with the cayenne (I’m a spice fiend and appreciated this very much). We serve our tefteli with a healthy dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche. And while I can’t promise they’ll make everything better, they do for the moment.

Mom’s tefteli topped with Snowville Creamery creme fraiche (it’s the GOAT but I've literally never seen it outside of Ohio…). Bonus points if you serve your tefteli in a Corelle bowl.

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Tefteli

WHAT YOU NEED

2 lbs ground turkey (or chicken, or beef)

1 cup cooked rice (not overdone as it will continue cooking)

1 large onion, grated

2 large carrots, peeled and grated

¼ cup oil (any kind)

Salt to taste

Cumin to taste

Paprika to taste

Cayenne pepper to taste

Cracked black pepper to taste

4 cups water

1 tsp sugar

WHAT YOU DO

Add oil to a saucepan over medium heat. Add grated onion and carrot. Season with salt, cumin, paprika, cayenne and black pepper to taste (my mom used about ½ teaspoon each but try getting a Russian mom to actually measure).

Continue cooking, covered, for about 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender. At this point remove ¾ of the carrot/onion mixture and place in a large bowl to cool. 

To the mixture remaining in the saucepan, add about 4 cups of water as well as more salt/spices to taste and a teaspoon of sugar. This is going to be the tefteli sauce and cooking liquid. Bring the water to a boil.

Meanwhile, once the carrot/onion mixture in the bowl has cooled add the cooked rice and ground meat. We normally use turkey or a mix of turkey/chicken but this would be great with beef! Whatever you’ve got, I’m not picky.

Mix and season with salt, pepper, and more of the aforementioned spices. To check the seasoning you can fry up a patty and taste it. This is definitely not something my mom has ever done so it’s usually just a fun game of “what’s this gonna taste like??” for us.

Set up a station with a bowl of water and the ground meat mixture right near the sauce pot. Dip your hands into the water then grab about 2-3 tablespoons worth of meat mixture and roll it into a ball between your palms (the water is so the meat doesn’t stick to your hands). One by one, roll the tefteli and pop them into the boiling water. If you run out of space in the pot you can add more water but the tefteli tend to float so there should be more room than you think. Continue until the meat mixture is done.

Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low and simmer for at least 20 minutes. My mom has always had a penchant for cooking meat for WAY longer than necessary (like, she simmers these tefteli for almost an hour) and I recently found out this is because in Soviet Russia the chances of meat being spoiled were high so everyone cooked the living sh*t out of it to kill whatever bacteria might be in there. The more you know! Anyways, you only really need to simmer these for about 20 minutes. 

Serve with some of the cooking liquid and sour cream. I like to throw dill in there sometimes, too.