All the çiğ köfte sold today is meat free; raw meat is not legally used. So what you make at home is the same thing. The whole job is in the kneading: as the bulgur, the pastes and the isot open up, the mixture thickens and binds. Forty minutes may sound like a lot but it really does take that long, and cut short the köfte falls apart.
Ingredients
For the mixture
Added later
To serve
Method
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Soak the bulgur
Pour the hot water over the bulgur, stir, cover and leave for 30 minutes.
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Add the pastes
Add the grated onion, garlic, both pastes and the spices.
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Start kneading
Knead by pressing with the heel of your hand. For the first ten minutes the mixture looks ragged; do not panic.
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Keep going
Knead for 40 minutes in total, adding the olive oil a little at a time. The mixture should thicken into one piece and the colour should visibly deepen.
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Add the herbs
Add the parsley, spring onion, pomegranate molasses and lemon juice and knead for 5 minutes more.
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Shape
Wet your palm and squeeze each piece so your fingers leave their mark.
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Chill
Chill for 10 minutes and serve with lettuce leaves and lemon.
Tips
- Do not shorten the forty minutes. The kneading time is not a suggestion here, it is the condition on which the mixture binds.
- Pepper flakes instead of isot give neither the colour nor the depth; isot is smoky and dark, pepper flakes are simply sharp.
- Do not add the herbs at the start. Parsley added early darkens during the kneading and releases its liquid.
- Your hands may sting and isot stains the skin. If you are sensitive, knead with gloves.
Nutrition
Values are per serving and approximate.