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 and shaped around flat skewers. The one thing on the grill that children and grandparents both finish.
Two things I got from reading properly. The kneading is two minutes, not five: the change you are waiting for is the mix turning slightly sticky, and that arrives sooner than I had been telling people. And there is a real binder available — a teaspoon and a half of powdered gelatin in the mix — which keeps them moist without the springy, bouncy texture that is exactly what makes kofta let go of the skewer. On the lamb-to-beef ratio, nothing is published either way, so half and half is my call and not a rule.
Ingredients
- 500 g minced lamb, at least 15% fat
- 500 g minced beef, at least 15% fat
- 1 onion, grated and squeezed thoroughly dry
- 3 cloves garlic, grated
- 1½ tsp powdered gelatin
- 1½ tsp hot smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ¼ tsp ground coriander and ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ⅛ tsp each nutmeg and 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 dry in a cloth. This is the one moisture step any of these cooks insists on, and it matters more than it sounds.
- Put everything in a bowl and knead it hard, like bread dough, for two full minutes. It changes under your hands from loose mince into a mass that is slightly sticky and pulls away in one piece. That stickiness is the signal to stop.
- Fry a teaspoon of it 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. Up to twenty-four is fine.
- Cook over hot, even charcoal with the skewers set at an angle across the bars, four to seven minutes a side, to about 70 °C.
- Do not move them until they have set a crust. That is the moment they let go of the bars on their own, and forcing it earlier is how they end up in the coals.
- Rest three minutes and serve with flatbread, yoghurt and lemon.
Serve it with. Yoghurt with garlic and lemon, and the salad table.