It’s hot and humid down here in southern Spain, the manual jobs around the land are on hold, so it’s a good time for me to go through the culinary and travel diaries that I have jotted things down in over the years and create dishes that I have described. The first notebook I picked up has in it notes I made on a visit to Istanbul, including the food we ate and saw being eaten, this inspired me to have a Turkish theme to the lunch I was preparing for friends today.

Quite a lot of Turkish dishes are familiar to me as my father was from Sarajevo which was under Turkish rule for over 500 years, so his recipes passed down from his mother and taught to me and my siblings, were very much influenced by Turkish cuisine.

On my menu there was Beef Kofta, Bulgur Wheat Salad, Aubergine Salad with Yoghurt Dressing and Muhammara Red Pepper and Walnut Pate. The pate recipe I gave you in a previous post, so just search ‘red peppers’ to find it. Today I’ll give you the recipe for the Kofta as my grandmother Sofia would have made it, the salads will be in the next post.

BEEF KOFTA RECIPE

Before you start a couple of pointers, using lean mince means that the kofta will stick together when you cook them, so you won’t need to add an egg and breadcrumbs as suggested by some recipes, which I think makes the kofta less juicy. Also finely chopping the onion by hand rather than in a food processor, although a bit of work, will give the kofta a better texture too.

500 grams lean minced beef

1 medium onion – cut into small dice

3 cloves of garlic – finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon allspice berries

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

cinnamon quills – broken into pieces – roughly a teaspoons worth

1/2 teaspoon sumac

1/2 teaspoon salt

Put the mince in a large bowl with the onions and garlic and mix together with your hands.

Put the cumin seeds, allspice berries, peppercorns and cinnamon pieces in a heavy based frying pan on a low heat to toast. Shake the pan from time to time so that the spices are warmed on all sides. When you can smell their warm fragrance coming out of the pan, turn off the heat and leave to cool.

Once your spices are cool grind them to a powder either in a mortar with a pestle or in a little coffee grinder as I do.

Add to the mince mix together with the salt and sumac and work the spices evenly into the meat squeezing and mixing with your hands.

Form the meat into little flattened cakes on a floured plate, turning them so that they are evenly covered in flour.

Fry in olive oil on a medium heat until nicely browned, then turn over to cook the other side adding more oil as needed.