Kofta
From Chaldeans Wiki
Kofta, köfte, kafta, or kafteh are various spellings and pronunciations of Middle Eastern and South Asian meatballs or dumplings.
In their simplest form, they consist of balls of minced or ground meat — usually beef or lamb — mixed with spices and/or onions. The meat is often mixed with other ingredients such as rice, burghul or vegetables to form a smooth paste. A common comparison is "spicy hamburger meat."
The word kofta appears to be derived from the Persian "koffteh", which means 'pounded meat'<ref>Margaret Shaida</ref>, and appears in some of the earliest books. These early recipes generally concern seasoned lamb rolled into orange-sized balls, and glazed with egg yolk and sometimes saffron. This method was taken to the west and is referred to as gilding, or endoring. Many regional variations exist, perhaps the largest being the Iranian koofteh Tabrizi, with an average diameter of 20cm (8").
Koftas in South Asian cuisine are normally cooked in a spicy curry and sometimes with whole pre-boiled eggs. Sometimes the eggs are encased in a layer of the spicy kofta meat so that the final product resembles an Indian Scotch Egg. These kofta dishes are very popular in South Asian families and are available widely from many Indian restaurants.
In Arab countries, kofta is usually shaped into sausage-like cylinders, without casing.
In Turkey, the kofta is called köfte, and is a very popular food item. According to recent research done by a private food company, there were 291 different kinds of köfte in the country.<ref>Turkish Newspaper Article</ref>
In Greece, they are called keftedes (singular keftes).
In Romania, they are called chiftele (singular chiftea).
