“Brizoli”  is another specialty by my Mother in Law, and my husbands favorite food.  Of course she would not teach me how to make them( I think it’s in a mother in law rule book to never teach the daughter in law  how to make your son’s favorite food), and frankly I didn’t ask her outright to teach me, too cool for school and all that jazz. From the little  information she provided, and from many trials and errors,  I have finally, after 19 years of marriage, found the right  proportions of ingredients to match and maybe even surpass hers. Ha!  The technique of making them, is my own creation, I perfected it by making inside out sushi rolls. It’s the easiest and fastest out of all I found in the vast spaces of the internet.

I don’ t know who invented “Brizoli”, but I guess they are a “Soviet”  rendition of the Italian “Braciole” – a rolled thin meat escallop with various stuffing.  They were made for festive gatherings, a way to use ground meat  in a festive form and wow the guests in an era of deficit.  Surfing the net I found variations that stuff the “brizoli ” with a mix of mayo and garlic,  veggies, sauteed mushrooms with caramelized onions, I have stuffed them with a chunky cranberry and apple relish – the possibilities are endless.

Most of the recipes on the net, use flour in the eggs and flour in the ground meat mix, I do not. Omiting the flour provides for a cleaner taste,  in my opinion.

Ingredients

• 1 lbs of  ground turkey (a mix of meats like, veal, lamb and turkey, or the meatloaf mix : – veal, beef and pork would work here as well)
• 1/2 small onion finely grated
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper ( feel free to add any combo of herbs/and or spices. Spices were a deficit in Soviet era, and most of the  recipes call only for most  common salt and  black pepper. Garlic powder goes well with this, fresh garlic is too strong for the delicate structure of the “brizoli”)
• 5 eggs
• 1 1/2  – 2  tablespoon of water

Directions

1. Mix the ground meat, onion  salt and pepper together in a bowl.
2. In another bowl lightly beat the eggs with water.
3. Prepare two flat plates and a sandwich bag or a piece of plastic wrap. I prefer sandwich bag, because it’s much more rigid than the plastic wrap.
4. Make meatballs out of the meat, the size of a golfball. Add about 1/8 cup of the egg mix into a salad plate.
5. Flatten the meatball into a thin patty about 1/4″ thick, with your hands. If the meat is sticky – wet them with a little water. It will be easier to handle.
6. Using the sandwich bag, invert the patty on top of the egg mix.
7. Carefully remove the bag without disturbing the patty.
8. Heat about a teaspoon of oil in an 8″ pan.  Carefully slide the egg and patty into the pan so that the egg is on the bottom and patty is still on top.
9. Cook until the egg is done and turn the patty over taking care not to break the patty.  At this point you have time to get another patty ready for cooking.
10. Cook for 1 minute and slide onto a plate.
11. Roll the patty while it’s still hot.  If you plan to add stuffing to it – now would be the best time. Once the “brizol” cools it will become rigid, and stuffing would be harder to add to it.
12. Serve the patty hot or room temperature with a side of garlic mashed or roasted potatoes, buckwheat with mushrooms, salad or roasted cauliflower.