Kifta

Mia and I tried out a new Middle Eastern restaurant we had heard about. Mia would have preferred to skip it for something more mainstream I think. We had been driving a bit, so when we hit the restaurant Mia told me to order something for her and dismissed herself for the restroom. Knowing that she thinks Middle Eastern is a little too grassy/grainy I chose Kifta, a Lebanese version of meat loaf. She loved it!

I tasted the Kifta and I thought it was good, I also thought I could improve it, for our tastes. A bit less spice, a little less cooking and it would be great! I don’t know much about Kifta, but imagine it was created to use up aging cuts of meat by heavily spicing it and cooking it very, very well. Just a guess???

I looked at a lot of Kifta recipes and instructions and then set out to create a dish my guests would like. In the end, I created a dish my guests love! While I am not really much of a ground meat eater myself I really liked my Kifta. I chose, very lean beef, ground it at home and used olive oil to supplant the fat otherwise found in ground beef. I used lots of herbs like parsley and cilantro, spiced it and cooked it to perfection. Good stuff and rave reviews. Kifta is now a part of our family cookbook and will be on our entertaining menu.

• 1 pound lean Beef, ground very, very finely
• 1/2 large Onion, ground
• 1/2 cup Parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup Cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 to 4 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon Allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

Method

Grind the beef in a food processor and remove to a bowl; pulse the onion in processor until finely ground and place on top of beef; place the parsley and cilantro in processor and pulse until finely chopped and add to beef; add olive oil and spices and mix all together with hands.

Form meatballs the size of golf balls, slightly flatten and elongate with palms of hands; place in skillet and cook over medium heat, turning often to brown evenly, and cook until fully cooked through or about 7 minutes. If needed, add a bit more olive oil to the pan to cook the Kifta in.

Serve the Kifta as a part of a mezze or a Kifta Sandwich. For a mezze simply serve a plate of them along with other items such as falafel, hummus, pickles and dolmas.

If making a sandwich, place the hot Kifta in warmed pita and serve immediately with yogurt and/or garlic sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and hummus. Bon Apetite!

Notes

A variation of this dish is found throughout Arab countries, the Levant and the Mediterranean. The ingredients and seasonings along with pronunciation and spellings will change a bit from country to country but the dish is fundamentally the same. Below are some of the spelling variations I have found in my hunt for Kifta.
Arab countries kafta’ Iran kufteh Turkey köfte Azerbaijan küftə
Bosnia ćufta Serbia ćufta Croatia ćufta Bulgaria kyufte Macedonia kjofte Greece keftes Romania chiftea Armenia kyuft’a Albania qofte India kofta Pakistan kofta