The word kofta (or kufteh) has its origins in Persian, and it means grounded or pounded. Any thing that is pounded and shaped like a ball and cooked can be called Kofta.  You can have meat kofta, sparrow seafood kofta, chicken kofta or even a vegetarian kofta.

Kofta Recipe

      Author: Iranvisions

      Prep time: 30 minutes

      Cook time: 2 hours

ingredients

•    3 medium onions
•    2 garlic cloves
•    2 cups of the vegetables
•     150 grams ground beef
•     150 grams  ground lamb
•     1 egg
•     Salt and pepper
•     3 spoons  rice
•     1 cup of yellow split peas
•     3 spoons oil
•     1 cup plum
•     Turmeric

   

Instructions

1. Soak yellow split chickpeas in water for about 1 hour; remove them from the water and be sure to squeeze out the water completely.
2. chop the onion, garlic, and other vegetables.
3. Fry the chopped onions and add water to it  , then keep half of the onins to add to the meat and vegetables later.
4. Mix the rice, vegetables, fried onions, split chick peas ,salt, pepper, turmeric and egg together and run the food processor until all is well combined forming a pasty meat mixture.
5. Now it's the time to form the mixture like a ball. put your hands in water and then take some of the ingredients and push one or two plums into the mixture and make a ball in the size of an orange.
6. While the fried onions are boiling in the pot, put the prepared koftas in the pot one after the other. leave the pot on a low flame for 2 hours

Notes

• Mince and grind the lamb and the beef twice or more
• Don't forget to add the egg to the ingredients, because it will help  to make the stuffs stick together
• The housewives in the old days were afraid that the kufta balls open loose or as in Farsi said " their koftas are gone"  it means the kofta is gone bad. even today that is a trick learned by practicing to make nice koftas.
• It's better the lamb or the beef to be fresh, not frozen
• The pot should not be full of water to cover atll the koftas.