🚟 🕉️ 🗣️ Koenigsberg bedbugs: recipe and cooking nuances, composition, ingredients, calories and a variety of products for this dish 🕚 🗳️ ⛱️

The Königsberg bedbugs recipe came to Russia from Germany. Bedbugs are ordinary meatballs stewed in sauce, but the German name is more appetizing when viewing a restaurant menu. To eat real bedbugs, you don’t have to go to Berlin, you can try them in many restaurants, and it’s not difficult to cook such meatballs at home.

How to cook bedbugs in Germany?

The recipe for Konigsberg bedbugs among the Germans is as follows:

They take meat, pork is most often used, in Germany they respect it very much. Stuff the minced meat, add the “yesterday’s” bun soaked in milk. Then, deliberately fried onions are put in the minced meat, beat the eggs and also sent to the minced meat.

Such meatballs are traditionally stewed in a broth prepared as follows:

Whole, peeled onion, parsley, allspice peas, lemon zest, bay leaf, capers are boiled in water.
Flour the oil in oil and add to the broth.
Squeeze the juice from the lemon, and also pour into the sauce.

Next, bedbugs are formed, poured with this sauce and stewed until fully cooked for about 20 minutes.

Traditionally Konigsberg bedbugs, recipes of which we will consider in other variations, are served at the table with a side dish of boiled potatoes and pickled beets.

Today, there are many ways to prepare bedbugs that are presented as Koenigsberg, and there is no lie. We looked only at the traditional version, but the Germans themselves also have others.

Calorie dishes

As for energy value, it will vary depending on the ingredients used. For example, if you take a traditional recipe that uses pork, then the approximate calorie content will be 380 kcal per 100 grams of ready-made bedbugs.

If you use beef with pork or just beef, then there will be less calories. If you take the meat of poultry or fish, then the dish can be eaten even by people who follow a diet.

Where to eat Konigsberg bedbugs in Kaliningrad?

Why in Kaliningrad? Yes, because it is in this city that German recipes are glorified (Kaliningrad was formerly called Koenigsberg, belonged to East Prussia). For example, tourists never leave Kaliningrad without tasting the three most popular dishes, these are:

Smoked eel.
Konigsberg bedbugs.
Konigsberg marzipans.

It so happened historically that the western region of Russia owes its gastronomy to its German past, it is Koenigsberg cuisine that dominates here - hearty, tasty and nutritious.

Earlier, in the restaurants of Kaliningrad there was no such dish as bedbugs on the menu; various kinds of meatballs were served there. But the fashion for "bedbugs" has taken its toll, and now there is probably not even a simple cafe in which you could not taste this simple dish with an intriguing name.

But we will not go either to Germany or to Kaliningrad to feast on Koenigsberg's bugs. The recipe for such meatballs is simple enough to be cooked at home. You have already seen the first option; we suggest that you familiarize yourself with no less simple and interesting ones.

Mixed mince bugs

The recipe for mixed forcemeat bedbugs is more oriented towards the Russians, because we are not used to scrolling clean pork, it is a bit greasy for us. Adding beef, we will make the meat less fat, but no less juicy, and you can argue about the taste - it will be tastier!

Ingredients:

300 grams of pork;
300 grams of beef;
half a glass of breadcrumbs;
2 chicken eggs;
2 tablespoons of mustard;
a tablespoon of butter;
bulb;
3-4 anchovies;
30 grams of salted gherkins;
a tablespoon of flour;
a glass of 20% cream;
salt and pepper.

If there are no anchovies in the refrigerator, we can do without them.

How to cook Koenigsberg bedbugs?

The process is as follows:

Break the eggs into a bowl, grind the anchovies with them, and beat with a whisk.
Scroll the meat through a meat grinder, put chopped onions, eggs with anchovies, two tablespoons of the finished mustard, salt, pepper in the minced meat. We mix everything well.
Next, pour the breadcrumbs into the minced meat, knead, beat, throwing it on the table. Thus, German meatballs will turn out to be more airy.
Roll up small balls - portioned meatballs should fit entirely in your mouth.
Pour water into the pan, place the bugs in them. Water should only cover the balls; you don’t need to pour a lot of it. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a minimum, cook for 15 minutes.
Remove the bugs from the broth, but do not pour the broth, it will go to the sauce.
Melt the butter in a frying pan, add flour to it, stirring quickly, fry until it turns red.
Pour the cream into a frying pan with flour in a thin stream, stir to prevent lumps from forming.
Pour the broth into the cream with flour. Put the salted gherkins, salt and pepper a little, cook 3 minutes after boiling over low heat.
Put in bedbugs sauce, simmer for 10 minutes, closing the lid.

Poultry Bedbugs

We offer for consideration a recipe for making bedrocks of chicken or turkey - which meat is preferable for you, then take it, it will turn out delicious from any meatballs!

Products for bedbugs:

600 grams of chicken or turkey fillet;
2 liters of water;
bulb;
60 grams of capers;
50 grams of pancetta;
two chicken eggs;
150 grams of loaf;
a pinch of sugar;
salt and ground pepper;
a tablespoon of marjoram, a teaspoon of ground paprika;
4 tablespoons of lemon juice;
a little more than half a glass of dry white wine;
50 grams of butter;
half a glass of 20% cream;
two tablespoons of flour;
salt and pepper;
teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce.

Cooking Bedbugs

For cooking:

Turn onion and meat through a meat grinder, the grill should be shallow. Add salt and pepper, marjoram and paprika, moistened bread, eggs, mix well.
Grind half the capers, add to the minced meat. If the consistency is somewhat liquid (should be thicker than on cutlets), you will need to add more bread or bread crumbs.
Shape the meatballs.
Prepare the broth: place the bay leaf, lemon juice, sugar, salt and a few peas in the water. Bring the broth to a boil, reduce the heat, carefully place the bedbugs in it, cook until tender for 10-15 minutes (meatballs will pop up).
Put the bedbugs in a bowl separate from the broth, and prepare the sauce.
From the broth in which the bugs were boiled, you need to take half a liter. The rest can be poured.
Melt the butter in a pan. Fry the flour in it.
Pour in the cream, broth and wine, stirring, bring to a boil.
Grind the second half of the capers, send to the sauce. Pour in Worcestershire sauce there, salt and pepper. Cook 5 minutes after boiling.
Remove the sauce from the heat, put the bedbugs in it, let it brew for 15 minutes, then you can serve it on the table.

Fish Meatballs

The recipe for fish bedbugs is not traditional, but this will not hurt us. In the distant past, fish in Koenigsberg was an everyday food, as there are a lot of it. But the meat was served only on Sunday or on special days. And it took root - on weekdays, fish dishes, on holidays and on weekends - from meat.

For the preparation of such meatballs, it is advisable to take the traditional fish of Kaliningrad - eel. For lack of such, we use sturgeon fillet, Baltic herring or herring.