One of my favourite ways of Turkish meatballs is this absolutely delicious and very quick and easy to make, that I discovered during our travel in Turkey. These izgara kofte can be made using minced lamb meat, infusing the meat with a fragrant Turkish spices and adding a little bit of sugar it helps to balanced the flavor. This is a simple recipe for making a meatball in the oven. They’re tender, delicate, moist not dry and taste like the autentic Turks kofte/meatballs. We personally love eating this dish in middle eastern style along with the saffron rice, bulgur pilaf, and charcoal grilled chili's, it goes well with shepherd's salad dish and wedges of lemon. (Makes 20 pieces of meatballs)
Ingredients:
600g ground beef
1 large yellow onion
1½ tbsp kofte spice
½ tbsp sumac spice
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
1¼ cup bread crumbs
1½ tbsp sugar
salt
olive oil
Preparation:
Ingredients:
600g ground beef
1 large yellow onion
1½ tbsp kofte spice
½ tbsp sumac spice
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
1¼ cup bread crumbs
1½ tbsp sugar
salt
olive oil
Preparation:
1. The first step was finely chopping my onion in my food processor for a quick prep.
2. Next up, preheat oven to 220°C; In large bowl combine all ingredients including the chopped onion, except olive oil, add some salt around 1¼ tbsp or depends on your personal taste.
3. Mush with your hands to mix well until combine. Clean your hands before handling the food.
4. Take a big bite size of meat mixture about 4½cm or you could make them any size you wanted. Roll each one in the palms on your hands and shaping them into a full moon, crescent, star :).
5. Seriously just shape them into a classic meatballs or ovals.
6. Place on a shallow pan allow fat to drip away while broiling them into the oven.
7. Brush with olive oil.
8. Adjust your oven shelve to the top middle, place the roasting pan in the hot oven, pour around 500ml of boiling water.
9. Put the meatballs on top of the roasting pan.
10. Bake at preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until browned and no longer pink in center. You can cook these meatballs in a frying pan, add a few drops of olive oil and fry for 5-6 minutes or in barbecue grill.
11. When done, take them out from the oven.
12. Allow to rest for 1-2 minutes before serving.
13. Serve the warm kofte with steamed saffron rice, shepherds salad and grilled chili. You could do almost anything with them (pita bread with some salad) or plenty more ideas to serve these meatballs.