Köfte

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.