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Kofta is a popular Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian dish made by grinding meat with spices and forming it into balls or cylinders. It can also be made with vegetables and served with a variety of sauces. There are hundreds of variations on this dish, and it can be adjusted to suit individual tastes.
Kofta is a Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian dish made by grinding meat, mixing it with spices, and forming it into balls or cylinders for cooking. Kofta is known by a variety of other names including kefta, kufta and qofte, and there are hundreds of variations on this dish ranging from spiced lamb koftas grilled on the street in Turkey to vegetable koftas served with naan in India. Many Middle Eastern and Indian restaurants offer some version of kofta, and it’s also possible to make kofta at home; as the dish is extremely flexible, cooks can adjust the ingredients and accompanying foods as desired.
The simplest kofta is made from meat that has been ground very finely so that it turns into a smooth paste. The meat is mixed with spices such as coriander, garlic, onion, turmeric, cumin, cardamom, or nutmeg, then grilled, baked, fried, or roasted, depending on the cook’s taste. Many cooks string their koftas for easy cooking, although the skewers are usually removed to serve them, except in parts of the Middle East where cigar-shaped koftas are served on skewers in the street as a snack.
Common choices of meat include beef, lamb, and chicken, and seafood kofta can sometimes be found in India. Given the high Muslim population in the part of the world where koftas are served, pork would be a very unusual ingredient. Apart from meat, kofta may also include an ingredient such as rice, bulgur wheat or millet, to make it less thick. Eggs can also be added, to bring the ingredients together in the kofta, and some cooks actually cook whole eggs with their kofta.
In countries with large vegetarian populations, such as India, you can find vegetable koftas made with an assortment of vegetables such as cauliflower, corn, peas, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, green beans, squash, onions, beets, and ginger. Vegetable koftas are often served with a thick, savory gravy in India and Southeast Asia. In some cases, koftas are floated in a spiced stew, which can be ladled over rice or served with breads such as naan.
The drier little koftas make great starters, while a kofta stew can make for an interesting main course. Cooks should feel free to play with ingredients and sauces; a survey in Turkey alone revealed nearly 100 variations on the basic kofta, suggesting there are no hard and fast rules to this popular Middle Eastern food.
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