Turkish Meatballs

There are really no main differences between the Turkish food and the Greek food. Turks and Greeks they both love meat.  Kofte which refers to pounded meat is delicious little meat balls or patties either grilled or fried. Spices, ingredients, and cooking methods vary greatly all across Turkey. In one of my visits to  Dodekinos I had kofte with potatoes, I fell in love with the sauce. The kofte recipe here is both Turkish and Greek with a slight difference. Any type of ground meat will work well with this recipe, but a mixture of beef and lamb will yield the best results.  In this very special recipe Turks use cumin with the meat in kofte but Greeks use cumin in the tomato sauce..

Ingredients:
 

• 1 pound ground meat
• 1 yellow onion (grated)
• 3 slices of stale bread
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1/3 cups of milk-warm

The sauce:

• 5-6 medium sized tomatoes-diced
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 2 tablespoons basil
• 2 sugar cubes

For the sauce:

Put all the ingredients except cumin in a pot, cook on low heat. Remove from heat add cumin, stir and set aside. Soak the bread in warm milk, turning the slices over to absorb it. Cool and mince the bread.

How To:

In a large bowl place the meat, onion, the egg, parsley, pepper, and salt. Using clean hands, mix together until completely combined.

Take egg size pieces (Koftes)and roll them in your hand into long finger-like shapes. Continue till all the mince mixture has been used. Run cold water over your hands so the meat won't stick.

Put olive oil in a frying  pan, brown the koftes (meat patties ) and add them to the sauce. Simmer on medium heat for a few minutes and serve with potatoes.

Potatoes:

Ingredients:

• 4 potatoes - diced
• a handful of parsley - finely chopped
• 3-4 cloves of garlic - crushed
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt to taste

How To:

In a large frying pan place the butter and the olive oil, heat. Add the diced potatoes and start frying them golden brown on medium heat, stirring from time to time with a large spoon.

Blend the garlic with the chopped parsley, add salt. Turn the heat off and add the parsley mix with the potatoes. Stir and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

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