Middle Eastern · Main · From the menu Brasa
Spiced lamb and beef kofta
Kofta de cordero y ternera, comino, menta
Half lamb, half beef, worked until the mixture turns sticky, spiced with cumin and mint and shaped around flat skewers. The one thing on the grill that children and grandparents both finish.
Kofta falls off the skewer for one reason: the mix has not been worked enough. Kneading develops the protein until it goes tacky and holds itself together, and that takes a solid five minutes. Then it has to rest cold, and it has to go on a hot grill. Skip any of the three and you will be picking meat out of the coals.
Ingredients
- 500 g minced lamb, 20% fat
- 500 g minced beef, 20% fat
- 1 onion, grated and squeezed dry in a cloth
- 3 cloves garlic, grated
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- Half tsp cinnamon
- A large handful each of flat parsley and mint, chopped fine
- 2 tsp fine salt, 1 tsp black pepper
Method
- Squeeze the grated onion in a cloth until it is genuinely dry. The water it holds is the second reason kofta falls apart.
- Put everything in a bowl and knead it hard, like bread dough, for a full five minutes. It will change under your hands from loose mince to a sticky mass that pulls away from the bowl in one piece. That is the moment to stop.
- Fry a teaspoon of it in a pan and taste for salt and spice. Adjust. This is the only chance you get.
- Wet your hands and shape the mix around flat metal skewers into sausages about 15 cm long and 3 cm thick, squeezing to grip the skewer. Refrigerate at least an hour, uncovered.
- Cook over hot, even charcoal with no flames, 10 to 12 minutes total, turning only every three minutes. Do not fiddle with them; they need to set a crust before they will release.
- Rest three minutes and serve with flatbread, yoghurt and lemon.
Serve it with. Yoghurt with garlic and lemon, and the salad table.