Kofta

Kofta is a family of meatball and meatloaf dishes found across South Asia, Central Asia, the Balkans, the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus. The name comes from Persian and Hindi-Urdu and means "pounded meat".

History

The earliest known recipes appear in early Arab cookbooks and also in the Byzantine Empire, where large lamb meatballs were glazed with saffron and egg yolk. This glazing technique later reached the West, where it was called "gilding" or "endoring".

Koftas moved into the Indian subcontinent, and according to Alan Davidson, nargisi kofta was served at the Mughal court. From there and from Persia, the dish spread through Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Balkans, Greece, Romania, Egypt and the Maghreb. Each language adapted the word with small phonetic changes, such as köfte in Turkish, kufta in Arabic and keftedes in Greek.

Culture

In everyday life, kofta is a dish for gatherings. In Turkey it is a common offering at communal events of all kinds, and a 2005 study by a food processing company counted about 291 types of köfte. Home-style Turkish versions often include stale bread and sometimes rice, as in sulu köfte, served in a sauce that is not reduced.

Regional variety is wide. In the Levant, kafta is made with beef or lamb, onion, parsley and spices, then grilled in cylinders or balls. Iran has the large koofteh tabrizi and koofteh berenji, which includes rice. In India, malai kofta and nargisi kofta, with a boiled egg inside, are typical, and vegetable versions such as kofte chawal, made with bottle gourd, are common. In Greece, tomato or courgette keftedes with feta are vegetarian options. Armenia and Azerbaijan both claim the dish, which carries symbolic weight in each.

Trivia