Preparation:

For the meatballs: Chop the onions, the garlic and the ginger and sauté them in a saucepan over medium heat until they soften. Strain and put them in the fridge in order to chill. At the same time, grate the carrot and collect the rest of the ingredients. Mix all the ingredients together with the minced chicken meat. Shape into 35g meatballs and bake in the oven at 180^o C for 10 to 15 minutes.

For the sauce: Chop the onions and peppers ‘emince’. In a deep pot, sauté the onions over medium heat until they caramelize. Then add the peppers and garlic and continue stirring for 5 to 7 minutes until the peppers start to ‘sweat’. At the same time, you need to add the chopped tomatoes as soon as the peppers are softened, together with the rest of the ingredients. Cook until the mixture begins to bind. Peppers should not be overcooked (“al dente)”.

For the yogurt: Add all the ingredients into a deep bowl and mix.

For the aromatic oil: Chop the onions, garlic, ginger and peppers and put them into a pot. Sauté the first 8 ingredients adding a little salt in 50 ml of sunflower oil. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and sesame seeds and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Add the remaining sunflower oil and cook in a low heat for 10 minutes.

How to finish the plate: Put the yogurt sauce as a base in a deep dish, mix the peppers with the meatballs in a saucepan and add them on top of the yogurt. Add a few drops of the aromatic oil to finish.

 

Wine Pairings:

It‘s a complex aromatic dish with rich flavor, spicy elements, acidity from the tomato and sweetness provided by the Florina peppers. All these contrasting elements are very well balanced. It will pair with rosé wines that display an intense fruity profile and a relatively rich body such as the PGI Korinthos (ΠΓΕ Κόρινθος) or PGI Peloponnese (ΠΓΕ Πελοπόννησος) -Agiorgitiko based- wines and with fresh and velvety reds such as the red wines from Liatiko in PDO Dafnes (ΠΟΠ Δαφνές) or Mavro Kalavrytino from Peloponnese and PGI Slopes of Aigialia (ΠΓΕ Πλαγιές Αιγιαλείας). If someone would prefer to pair a white wine, a PGI wine based on Malagousia or a white PDO Paros (ΠΟΠ Πάρος) wine from the Monemvasia variety are perfect choices.