Beef Kofta

Beef Kofta is a new favorite recipe for me.  I first tasted Beef Kofta a couple of years ago while I was staying with a close friend.  She used to order those delivered meal kits and made it for us one evening.  I was excited as I ate it.  The explosion of flavors from all the different herbs and spices sent my taste buds into a dance.  I looked over the recipe and realized that I most likely had all the ingredients to make it myself.  I have a spice collection of approximately 70 different spices, and I continue to keep looking for more.  Of course, the meal kit recipe had a spice packet with all the herbs already measured and combined.  So off to the internet to do some research to find out exactly what spices and herbs and the quantities of each I needed to create this taste sensation. 

The Beef Kofta dish reminded me of my first experience tasting an Exotic meal. It was over 30 years ago at a Moroccan restaurant in Calgary.  The establishment had a genuine décor.  Tables were lower to the floor and beautiful pillows were placed around each table.  At first, I was appalled at the idea of sitting on the floor to eat, but I found it a great new life experience.  The food was brought out and placed on a turntable.  Flat bread was served with it, and I found out quickly that this was going to be my cutlery.  Oh, the flavors I tasted that evening are still fresh in my mind.  At the time I wasn’t very knowledgeable about spices from around the world.  The meal inspired me to start experimenting with other seasonings and spices from other world cuisines in my cooking.

What cuisines are classified as Middle Eastern?

Middle Eastern cuisine is vast and comes from many cultures.   Arab, Armenian, Assyrian, Azerbaijani, Cypriot, Egyptian, Georgian, Iranian, Iraqi, Israeli/Jewish, Kurdish, Lebanese, Palestinian, Turkish and Northern African cuisines.  All these regions cook with similar ingredients and spices.  Many recipes are the same with small changes such as shape, accompaniments and spice combinations.  The spices are grown in many of these regions and contribute to wonderful exotic flavors. Example of these spices are:  cinnamon, cumin, mint, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, sumac, aleppo pepper.  Many of these spices are combined to create spice blends such as Za’atar and Baharat. 

Multiple Versions of Kofta

Kofta is a popular dish in many of the cultures I mentioned and can be found in numerous places such as:    Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Greece, India, Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey. Many of these countries call it different names such as:  kefta, kifta, kafta, koobideh. The ingredients are basically the same, but the shape varies from region to region.  Some are made with lamb, or beef and even a combination of both.  Some are pressed onto a skewer and grilled, while others are shaped like little logs or meatballs and even flat patties.  The version that I had with my friend was a Kofta bowl.  The meat was just in ground crumbled form and placed over rice and accented with hummus.  It was delicious.  I decided to make this recipe into logs.  You are encouraged to try out any shape you want when making this recipe.  No matter what form it is in, the taste will still be terrific.