Brnabić Kofta Meatballs with Roasted Vegetables

Beef Kofta Meatballs with Roasted Vegetables are the perfect well-rounded easy dinner with an Eastern European flavor. The work is done in the oven.

This dish is dedicated to Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, of Serbia. She is believed to be the first prime minister in a same-sex couple whose partner gave birth while the prime minister was in office!

This dish is served various ways through Eastern Europe. Here we use beef and pork meatballs with roasted vegetables on a bed of rice. A rich lemon yogurt sauce tops it all off. Again a meat & two vegetables ~~ an entire meal that is deliciously different.

Ingredients

Roasted Vegetables

• 1 zucchini
• mushrooms
• bell pepper
• 1 pint grape tomatoes
• 3/4 red onion
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• salt & pepper

Meatballs

• 1 lb. ground beef
• ½ lbs pork sausage
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ¼ red onion, minced
• ½ cup crushed potato chips
• ½ cup milk
• 2Tbs Worcester Sauce
• 2 Tbs parsley, chopped
• ½ tsp paprika
• ¾ tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp cooking oil

Other

• 4 cups cooked rice
• 2 Tbsp parsley, chopped, for garnish
  Directions:
  

• Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Dice the zucchini and yellow peppers. Reserve ¼ of the red onion for the meatballs and cut the remaining ¾ into ½ -inch slices. Place the chopped zucchini, onion, and peppers on a large baking sheet.
• Drizzle the olive oil over the vegetables, then add the garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Use your hands to toss the vegetables in the oil and spices until they are evenly coated. Spread the vegetables out evenly over the baking sheet. Set aside

Meatballs:

Crush a bowl of potato chips – I used sour cream & onion. Add ½ cup milk and 3 tbs of Worcestershire sauce. Turn on the oven to preheat to 400. While that is getting up to temperature, let the chips and milk sit to hydrate.

Chop the onion and garlic. When to oven is ready: In large bowl, mix all ingredients. Shape mixture into 24 (1½ -inch) meatballs. Place 1 inch apart in pan.

• Then transfer both sheets to the oven. With the vegetables on the lowest rack.

• (the meatballs will be ready at around 25 minutes) when temperature reaches 160°F and no longer pink in center. 
  
  
  
  
  
    Take them out and stir the vegetables- let them cook for another 15 – 20 minutes or wilted and browned on the edges

• Once the meatballs are cooked and the vegetables have finished roasting, it's time to assemble the meal. Place about ½ cup cooked rice on each plate or container, add ¼ of the roasted vegetables, then top with three or four of the beef kofta meatballs. (reserve the rest of the meatballs for use latter. Bag in zipper bags and freeze.)

• Serve with the lemon yogurt sauce.

Notes

You can substitute vegetables to match what is in season or on sale in your area at the time.

The word kofta comes from classical Persian meaning "to grind", reflecting the ground meat used for the meatballs.

In the former Yugoslav republics, present day Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, they are called ćufte or ćufteta. 

 

Lemon yogurt sauce

• 3 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove, finely grated
• 1 tbs honey
• ½ tsp. kosher salt + ½ tsp pepper
• 1 cups plain whole-milk Greek yogurt

Preparation

• Whisk lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, and honey into yogurt in a medium bowl to evenly distribute.
• Do Ahead: Sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

This makes a nice sauce to spoon over the plate.

What a wonderfully different meal for when things get boring!

For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTnKDRqWyHY

So proud to serve this to my Master Indy

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes by Dan White http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTMvia @amazon

===============================

Ana Brnabić

 

Ana Brnabić, a graduate of the University of Hull in England, is Serbia's first female Prime Minister. She is also the Balkan nation’s first gay PM.

Brnabić entered politics just three years when she became Serbia’s first openly gay minister, heading the ministry for public administration and local self-government.

She studied in the US and graduated in Hull with a marketing MBA in 2001, before returning to Serbia to work in the wind power industry and then for US-funded development projects.

Goran Miletić, a civil rights activist and Belgrade Pride organizer, said: “Even in some western countries it would be big news and a positive signal if a gay or lesbian person became prime minister or minister. It is even more important for a country where 65% believe that homosexuality is an illness and 78% think that homosexuality should not be expressed outside homes. The appointment of a lesbian can only be a positive message.”

Her government was voted into office in June 2017 by a majority of 157 out of 250 Members of the National Assembly of Serbia.

In 2018, Brnabić was ranked by Forbes magazine as the 91st most powerful woman in the world and as the 21st most powerful female political and policy leader.

The appointment of Ana Brnabić as Serbia’s prime minister was accompanied by the sound of glass ceilings being shattered all around her.

Not only is she the first woman to take on the role, Brnabić is gay and has achieved high office without being a member of a political party.

Giving her first interview to a foreign newspaper after a month in the job, she said: “Serbia is changing and changing fast, and if you will, I am part of that change, but I do not want to be branded ‘Serbia’s gay PM’. The message we need to send is about competence, professionalism and trustworthiness.”

Brnabić is dedicated to transforming the image and reality of Serbia, working punishing hours with a largely young team on administrative reforms to prepare it for eventual EU membership. “We are a country that does not have time to lose,” she said.

In her early 20s Brnabić spent six years abroad, mainly in London, she watched on TV as Nato planes bombed the defense ministry in Belgrade in 1999. To this day the buildings are a shell, a reminder of Serbia’s loss of Kosovo. They also highlight the dangers facing the Balkans as the west and Russia fight for strategic advantage.

Although as a gay Serbian citizen she cannot marry, Brnabić does not plan to push LGBT legal reforms at this stage.

“The reason why I am not focused on that now is because I deeply, truly believe Serbia will be a more tolerant society once people have jobs, better paid jobs, don’t have to care about their own livelihood, or the future of their own children, and do not have to worry about two or three generations living in the same flat,” she said.
“I don’t think Serbia is that homophobic. I understand attitudes are different in parts of Serbia. But some journalists were in a village in central Serbia where part of my family come from. They saw a couple of people just drinking beer in front of the local store and they asked them about me, and they replied: ‘Well, listen, in this part of Serbia we grow raspberries, fruit and vegetables, and we do not grow discrimination.’
“We can have a culture where we disagree, as long as there is tolerance and no violence. We all have different views and values, but I don’t want to change people’s thinking by law.”

In conversation, Brnabić is smart, pragmatic and agile. Given Serbia’s delicate balancing act between Europe and Russia, she needs to be.

“We spent the first three years focusing on the economy, mostly turning the Titanic away from the iceberg of bankruptcy.” Administrative changes and, crucially, reforms to the rule of law are next. “If we do not have rule of law and effective and transparent judiciary, everything else will start crumbling down,” she said.

In 2017, she became the first head of government of any Balkan country to attend a gay pride march when she attended one in Belgrade. In 2019 her partner Milica Đurđić gave birth to a boy; Brnabić is therefore believed to be the first prime minister in a same-sex couple whose partner gave birth while the prime minister was in office.

Brnabić holds an MBA diploma of the University of Hull and worked for over a decade with international organizations, foreign investors, local self-government units, and the public sector in Serbia.

She keeps her hands full: Last December, Commenting on the announced transformation of the Security Force into the Kosovo Armed Forces, Brnabić said: “I hope we won’t have to use our military, but at the moment, that’s one of the options on the table because one cannot witness a new ethnic cleansing of the Serbs and new Storms - although some are calling for them. When someone knows you have a strong army, then they have to sit down and talk to you”.

Brnabić navigates the country as it prepares for EU membership while retaining its traditionally close relationship with Russia, and nurturing a growing friendship with Beijing. What a tightrope!