BULGHUR KOEFTE (CIG KOFTE)

Living far from your home country can be very hard. Besides missing all your loved ones, you miss the food that you grew up eating. Sometimes you cannot get exact the same necessary ingredients and you try to modify the recipe as close to the original one as possible which sometimes ends up like disaster. But if the ingredients are available for you then you get the chance of ease your home sickness little bit.

I came up with special type of bulghur the other day and immediately I grabbed it from the shell to make this delicious koefte. Bulghur is widely used in Turkish Food. It's a very healthy alternative for rice.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulghur

There are several Bulghur types sorted according to grain size and color. The biggest grain size is used for pilafs. The finest ones are used in making koefte which are like meatballs. The one that I am going to give the recipe is very popular in Turkey. It used to contain raw meat in it years ago. You put lots of spices especially cumin which eliminates the harmful bacteria and you knead the mixture for hours. Nowadays since it is forbidden the ones that sold in the stores do not contain any meat but the taste is very close. My recipe is even easier, only you need is food processor so it eliminates kneading by hands for a long period of time.


What do you need?

• 1-1/4 cups bulghur (the finest one, for making koefte)
• 1 heaping tbsp tomato paste
• 1 heaping tbsp red pepper paste preferably hot ones (Middle eastern stores)
• 1 onion
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• fresh parsley and green onions
• crushed red pepper (optional)
• salt, 1-1/2 tbsp black pepper, 1 tbsp cumin, 1tsp cinnamon
  

How do you make?

Put bulghur into a very fine strainer and pour boiling water just enough to wet the bulghur and let the water drained for about 5 mins. This will soften the bulghur but it won't make them mushy.

Put onion and garlic into food processor and pulse them until finely chopped. Add bulghur, tomato and red pepper paste, and seasonings. If you use red pepper paste be careful with the salt because most of the time it is salt added. Start food processor and let it run about 2 mins .


Meanwhile put red pepper flakes into olive oil and let it infuse the color and flavor into the oil by pressing and mixing them with back of a spoon. Add olive oil and red pepper flakes into the food processor and let them mix until they form a ball shape and become sticky. Place the mixture into a bowl and mix finely chopped parsley and green onions (only the green parts) by hand. Shape them with your hand (you can put some oil in your hands to get it done easily) and serve with romaine hearts and lemon juice. Usually it is rolled inside lettuce leaves.
If you do not have food processor of course you can make it by kneading with your hands. I recommend team work, call a strong friend of yours before you start.