White Rice + Kofta

Jummah Mubarak!

I've decided to begin with making kofta--one of my favorite dishes. Kofta is an afghanish spicy meatball dish in tomato sauce.

One of the issues with kofta is how to prepare the ground meat in such a way that upon cooking there are no cracks. Cracks can occur because of lots of water in the meat, or that the meat was not packed tightly enough. There are two categories of techniques to prevent cracks, the way it's cooked and additions. My mother steams the meatballs in a little water for less then ten minutes to give it shape, I'm pretty sure frying the kofta would work in the same way. When it comes to additions, some people add an egg (I will never do this), others add soaked bread, some add flour. Then there are those like me--who add chickpeas :)

But there was still a crack! Must have been from my furious mixing.

I got the idea of creating a spicy chickpea paste from a friend; her mother uses a type of daal though...I can't remember which type though D: Anyways, in today's kofta I couldn't find chickpeas so I decided to use chickpea flour instead.

Chickpeas weren't the only ingredient I didn't have. I didn't have fresh parsley or cumin. But whatever!

Recipe~

Ingredients per lb of ground beef
3 tbs chickpea flour or 2 tbs boiled chickpeas
2 tbs fresh parsley
1.5 tsp cumin
1.5 tsp chili powder
1 tsp black pepper
2 tbs turmeric
3 tbs coriander seeds (can't get enough of this for kofta)
1 tbs garlic ginger paste (you can buy this, or make it)
1 onion
salt to taste


For the Sauce
1.5 onions diced
2 tomatoes diced
1/3 can of your choice tomato paste, sauce etc
salte to taste
1 tbs garlic ginger paste
oil!

Preparing Meatballs:

1. Boil chickpeas in water until cooked, drain then in a food processor combine with all of the spices, onions, parsley, and garlic ginger paste. If using chickpea flour, mix with water (about 3-4 tbs).
2. Add chickpea paste to the kofta (ground meat) and knead. Knead A LOT. The more you knead the more ground the meat gets, so the better the texture. It also gets the spices everywhere.
3. Leave in fridge for about 30 min.
4. Shape into balls. Whatever size.

Preparing the Sauce and Cooking

1. Fry diced onions in a little oil until before it caramelizes, add  garlic ginger paste then diced tomatoes. After a few minutes add your choice of tomato sauce/paste. You can also add whatever spices you like. I only add salt because I like for the meatballs to have all the spiciness and the sauce to just taste like cooked tomatoes.
2. Add meatballs, cook! The meatballs will release a lot of water, thus adding to the sauce. Cook on high for I'm not sure how long really, then leave on low. In all honesty, cook until you're satisfied. It might be a little intimidating, because it might seem like it's falling apart. If you're mixing the kofta too early, you might cause cracks (or it to completely fall apart). Just make sure you've got a lot of tomatoes to rest the kofta on, and trust that they'll be okay and only mix after they've solidified a bit.

The best thing for kofta is coriander seeds, add these (I add more than this recipe). The interesting thing about afghan food is that, as long as you keep the basic style you can literally do whatever you like. You can add a lot of spice you like, not add what you don't like etc. The concept of measuring doesn't really exist--you add whatever you're in the mood for :)

White Rice:

Ingredients per cup of rice:
2 tbs butter
1 2/3 cup water
salt to taste

1. Melt butter, add white rice and cook for no more than 2 or 3 minutes.
2. Add water and salt, cook until water is boiling. Turn down heat to low and cook until done (about 20-25 min).

Note: These are not foolproof or perfected recipes. I'm developing them, so I might redo these dishes in the future w/drastic changes. One thing I'm thinking is more chickpeas! Also the sauce needs help D: