Çiğ Köfte

Nothing is cooked and nothing is heated — the bulgur is worked by hand for half an hour until it binds.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 400 g fine bulgur
• 3 tablespoons hot red pepper paste
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 2 onions, grated to a pulp
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons isot or hot pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons salt
• about 350 ml cold water, a little at a time
• a large bunch of parsley, chopped
• juice of 2 lemons
• lettuce leaves and lemon, to serve

Method

1. NOTHING IS COOKED AND NOTHING IS HEATED -- the bulgur is worked by hand for half an hour until it binds. That half hour is the whole dish and there is no shortcut in it. Fine bulgur, pepper paste, grated onion and spices go into a wide tray and are kneaded, pressed and smeared with the heel of the hand, with cold water added a few spoonfuls at a time, until the mixture stops being wet crumbs and becomes a single smooth mass that holds a fingerprint. The starch has to be worked out of the grain by friction because there is no heat to gelatinise it. Mixed for five minutes it is a damp salad that falls apart in the hand; worked for thirty it is a paste you can shape. Nothing on this site else asks for that kind of labour and nothing else gets its texture from labour alone.
2. THE WATER GOES IN A FEW SPOONFULS AT A TIME AND THE TOTAL IS NOT FIXED. About three hundred and fifty millilitres for four hundred grams of bulgur, but bulgur varies and the only guide is the mixture: it should take up each addition completely before the next goes in. All the water at once gives a slurry that will never come together, and too little gives a mass that cracks.
3. THE BULGUR MUST BE FINE AND NOT COARSE. The finest grade, which is almost a flour. Coarse bulgur will not break down under hand pressure however long it is worked; it stays as distinct grains and the result is wet tabbouleh.
4. THE PARSLEY AND LEMON GO IN AT THE VERY END. Both after the kneading is finished. Parsley worked for half an hour turns black and bitter and stains the whole mixture khaki; lemon juice early interferes with the binding. Folded in at the end, the parsley stays green and the lemon stays bright.
5. A RAW MEAT VERSION EXISTS AND THIS PAGE IS NOT IT, WHICH IS STATED RATHER THAN GLOSSED OVER. The name means raw köfte and a version made with raw lean beef exists. This page is the bulgur version, which is what is sold and eaten overwhelmingly, and which carries no risk worth writing a recipe around. Anyone wanting the meat version needs a butcher they trust and advice this site cannot give.
6. The bulgur put in a WIDE tray or large shallow bowl -- room to work is the first requirement.
7. The pepper paste, tomato purée, grated onion, garlic, isot, cumin and salt added.
8. KNEADED, pressed and smeared with the heel of the hand, with COLD WATER added a few spoonfuls at a time.
9. Each addition worked in COMPLETELY before the next goes in.
10. Worked 30 MINUTES in all. There is no shortcut.
11. TESTED: the mixture must be ONE SMOOTH MASS that holds a fingerprint and does not crumble when squeezed. Damp crumbs mean it needs longer.
12. ONLY NOW the chopped parsley and the lemon juice folded in.
13. Tasted and corrected for salt, heat and lemon.
14. Pinched off in small pieces and squeezed in the fist so it takes the shape of the fingers.
15. Chilled 30 MINUTES.
16. Served cold on lettuce leaves with lemon wedges, to be wrapped and eaten in the hand.
17. Keeps 2 days in the fridge, covered.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes