Name: Köfte Bewertung von Zeyn bei Tadım Köfte, Antakya/Hatay, Türkei
Item: Köfte
Rating: 4.4
Author: Zeyn

Minced lamb or beef kneaded with onion, salt and a little bread or bulgur, shaped by hand and grilled, fried or simmered in sauce: köfte is the Turkish branch of a family that stretches from the Balkan ćevapi to the Persian kufteh, all descended from the Arabic kufta, meaning pounded meat. In Türkiye the word covers dozens of regional dishes rather than one recipe. Izgara köfte, the grilled oval patty, is the national default; İnegöl köfte from near Bursa uses only beef and lamb breast with onion juice and no bread; Akçaabat köfte on the Black Sea leans on garlic; Tekirdağ köfte is long, thin and cumin-heavy; çiğ köfte from Şanlıurfa is a raw, hand-worked bulgur paste that today is mostly meatless; içli köfte is a bulgur shell around a spiced filling, fried. A BiteCritic review should say which one is on the plate.

The common grilled version depends on handling. Medium-fat mince, ideally hand-chopped or coarsely ground twice, is worked with grated onion squeezed of its juice, salt, black pepper and, depending on the region, cumin, pul biber and a little stale bread soaked and wrung out or fine bulgur. The kneading goes on far longer than for a burger, ten minutes or more, until the mixture is tacky and holds together, then it rests cold for several hours so the salt can bind the proteins. Portions are shaped into flattened ovals or fingers, and grilled over charcoal on a wire rack or on a flat iron plate for a few minutes a side until browned and just cooked through; a brush of melted fat keeps the surface from drying. The standard plate is köfte with piyaz, the white bean salad, grilled green peppers, tomato and rice or bread.

A good köfte is springy rather than crumbly, juicy when cut, seasoned so the meat still leads, and browned with grill marks rather than steamed grey. Mark down patties that break apart, which means too little kneading or too much bread; a dense rubbery bounce, which means too much; dryness from lean meat or a long hold in a warming tray; and a flavour of raw onion or dominant cumin. Frozen factory köfte are uniform, small and taste of breadcrumb. In a bread, ekmek arası köfte, the meat should still be the main event. Judge the regional styles against their own rules: an İnegöl köfte with cumin or a mild Akçaabat köfte has missed its own point.

Köfte

Türkiye

Tadım Köfte

Köftede tuz eksikti. Az acı istememize rağmen çok acılı geldi. Onun dışında güzeldi. Sos ve köfte ağızda güzel bir tad bıraktı.

Köfte Bewertung von Zeyn bei Tadım Köfte, Antakya/Hatay, Türkei

Köfte

Tadım Köfte

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