Etsiz Çiğ Köfte / Turkish Meatless Raw kofta "meatball"

Selam.....Merhaba from Turkey.

Merhaba..... Have you been to Turkey before? 
Turkey, where you can indulge your eyes with countless beautiful and historical places and scenes. And the place which satisfy your taste with dozens of shockingly delicious street foods. 

Many of my previous post of Turkish food are street food with homemade style cause İ love experiment and taste new flavor of Turkish street food then try to copy for cooking at home.
But of course İ love to learn basic and traditional Turkish food that local women serve for their family as well.

And my post today is Etsiz Çiğ Köfte, literally means meatless raw "meatball". İt's no meat version of Çiğ Köfte (read; chee kuf-te),  one of Turkey's favorite fast food/ street food. The raw meat (non fat) mixed and knead with fine grain bulgur and many kind of baharat / spices. Çiğ Köfte traditionally shaped in small long balls serve with many fresh vegetables, cucumber pickle and chili pepper pickle, with adding of sour pomegranate molasses (nar eksisi) and lemon juice. Some love to enjoy with lavash (flatbread) while other just wrap it with lettuce. 

Generally Çiğ Köfte has a distinctive hot spicy taste as typical of south eastern Turkish foods. Some people claim it from Elazığ while other said it original from Adıyaman or from Malatya or from Urfa (Sanliurfa)... Those cities are indeed at south east of Turkey.
So for you who love spicy food İ assure you are going to love this food.

But what İ am going to share with you is meatless version of Çiğ Köfte. Some people calls yalancı Çiğ Köfte or Etsiz Çiğ Köfte. 
The important key to make this vegan "meatball" is kneading. The longer and stronger you knead you bulgur mixture,the better texture and taste you will get. Spices also important thing to get the best taste of  Çiğ Köfte. 
The "meatball" would be best serve after at least 5 hours after make it.

So.... are you food adventurer? try this at your kitchen and fell the Turkish taste in your home.

Etsiz Çiğ Köfte / Meatless Raw  kofte "meatball" 
Serve about 10 portions

İngredients:

• 2 cups (450 gr) fine-grain bulgur
• 2 medium yellow onion
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnut ( optional)
• 5-6 garlic
• 2 tbsp chili pepper paste
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 3 tbsp isot/ urfa chili pepper (reduce for less spiciness)
• 1 tbsp red chili flake
• 1 cup (250 ml) olive oil 
• ¼ cup sour pom sauce/ nar eksisi
• 1 tsp garlic powder (optional)
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp sumac
• pinch of clove powder
• half bunch parsley, roughly chopped

Mixture of olive oil, chili paste, tomato paste, isot/ urfa chili flake and red chili flake

 

How to make Çiğ Köfte

1) İn small sauce pan heat olive oil, add in chili pepper paste, tomato paste, urfa pepper and red pepper flake. Mix and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Set a side.

2) Ground onion and garlic to pureé (you can finely grated). İn a wide kneading place-like wide shallow tray (mine need bigger one), put bulgur, onion & garlic puree and other dry spices.

3) Mix wet spice from no.1 above and start kneading all ingredients vigorously. İf you have a man power around your house it would be very very helpful. İ asked my husband to knead our  Çiğ Köfte until it mix thoroughly and bulgur become soft. Once in while wet your hand with warm water during kneading process - it helps bulgur soft easily. As İ mentioned above this kneading process is the key. You can check softness of the mixture whether you should need more kneading process or not. The mixture should soft and shape-able. When you shape the mixture  in your fist it won't break up.
Note: wash your hand before start to knead. You can wear thin glove to avoid heat from spices.

see this link for my insta video.

4) Add in chopped parsley then knead again for few minutes more. Your Çiğ Köfte is ready now. Keep in air tight container and put in refrigerator at least 5 or 6 hour before serve. The longer you keep Çiğ Köfte the better the taste.

Afiyet olsun.

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For serving:

• iceberg lettuce or lettuce
• rocket lettuce
• parsley
• cucumber pickle
• green chili pickle
• lemon
• lavash flat bread
• ayran

How to serve:

You can eat with lavash flat bread lined with vegetables and pickles the wrap like dürüm (roll).

Sometimes İ just eat my Çiğ Köfte without lavash, just wrap them in iceberg lettuce and some pickles.

Add lemon and sour grape molasses (nar eksisi) as your taste.

Don't forget to make ayran for the drink.