Izgara köfte
Turkish grilled beef köfte, flattened into ovals and cooked fast over high heat. Grated onion with the juice wrung out of it, a little soaked bread for tenderness, and enough cumin that you can smell it before you taste it.
Standard Turkish grill-house method, beef rather than the usual beef and lamb mix
Ingredients
Units
Temperature
Servings
Köfte
- 800 g ground beef, 15 to 20 percent fat rounded
- 1 onion, coarsely grated, then squeezed hard in a cloth until dry rounded
- 60 g stale white bread, crusts off, soaked in water and squeezed out rounded
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste rounded
- 5 g ground cumin rounded
- 3 g dried oregano rounded
- 3 g dried mint, traditional and worth finding rounded
- 11 g fine salt rounded
- 4 g black pepper rounded
To serve
- 1 red onion, sliced thin and tossed with sumac rounded
- 4 long green peppers, grilled alongside until blistered rounded
- 1 lemon, in wedges rounded
- to taste flat-leaf parsley rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Wring the onion out properly. Grate it, pile it into a clean cloth and squeeze until no more liquid comes. This is the step people skip and then wonder why their köfte fell apart. Onion water loosens the mix and steams the meat on the grill instead of letting it brown.
- Soak and squeeze the bread. Cover with water for a minute, then press it dry between your palms and crumble it in. Bread rather than breadcrumbs, because it holds moisture without going pasty.
- Knead for 5 minutes. Everything in one bowl and work it hard until the mix is smooth, tacky and holds together in a ball. Like ćevapi and unlike a burger, you want the protein worked so it binds.
- Rest, covered, at least 2 hours in the fridge, and overnight if you can. The salt and cumin need the time, and the mix firms up enough to shape cleanly.
- Shape. Wet hands, roll a ball of about 65 g, then flatten it into an oval roughly 1.5 cm thick. A dent pressed into the middle with two fingers stops them doming as they cook.
- Grill hot but not savage. Charcoal or a ridged pan, medium-high. 4 to 5 minutes a side, turning once. Fierce heat blackens the outside while the middle is still raw, and these are thicker than a smash burger. Grill the peppers alongside.
- Rest 3 minutes and serve with the sumac onions, lemon and parsley, and flatbread.
Notes
- Cumin is the flavour. Turkish köfte without it tastes of nothing in particular. Five grams for 800 g of beef is assertive on purpose.
- Dried mint, not fresh. It is a different, drier, almost tea-like flavour and it is what makes these taste Turkish rather than generically Mediterranean. Most Turkish shops have it.
- The dent. Meat contracts as it cooks and a flat patty becomes a ball. A thumbprint in the centre keeps them flat, which is what you want for even grilling.
- Ahead. The raw mix keeps 2 days in the fridge and freezes for 3 months, shaped and layered between parchment.
Ingredient substitutions
- Sumac is a sour dark red spice and the onions are much better with it. Lemon zest with a pinch of salt is the nearest common substitute.
- Long green Turkish peppers are mild and sweet. Romano or pointed peppers work; a bell pepper is watery by comparison.
Sources consulted
Good with
Sources consulted
From Christoph Mayer