First, mince the meat, onions, and garlic using a meat grinder or food processor. To mince the meat, first, cut it up into cubes and put it in the meat grinder or food processor. Then, add the onions and the garlic.

Soak the bread in the sparkling water. Then, remove the bread and press it with your hands to remove the water. Mince the bread as well and add it to the mixture.

Add the eggs (3 yolks and 2 egg whites, beaten), salt, pepper, thyme, and tomato paste to the mixture.

Knead the mixture, which is our ‘dough’ for the “kotleti,” for about 10 minutes.

Cover it and put it in the fridge to rest for about 10 minutes.

Preheat a pan over medium-high heat. Add olive oil when the pan is hot. Shape the meat patty and add it to the pan. Repeat until the pan is full.

Turn the heat in the pan to medium or medium-low (depending on your hob, check that the meat patties don’t burn) & cook for about 4-5 minutes on each side. Make sure you don’t burn them but that they’re nice and browned on the outside. You may have to adjust the heat as you cook.

Repeat the process until you’ve cooked all the meat patties. After each round, put all the meat patties in a pot with a lid.

Add 50 ml of water and put the pot on a low simmer for about 10 minutes. This steams them and makes them quite juicy while also ensuring they fully cook on the inside.

Once the patties have steamed for 10 minutes, they are ready to serve! However, before serving, cut a meat patty in half and make sure they’re fully cooked.