Beef Kofte

Main Dishes | Armenian cuisine

⏳ Time

1 hour 30 minutes

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

Recipe from John Smith, chef at the local diner.

Ingredients

Lamb Neck Fillet - 2 lbs
Onion - 3.5 oz
Wheat Flour - 1.8 oz
Chicken Egg - 2 pieces
Milk - 2 fl oz
Cognac - 0 fl oz
Salt - 0.7 oz
Paprika - to taste

Step by Step guide

Step 1

Slightly freeze the beef in the freezer beforehand. Place the meat in a food processor or cutter, add salt, and pour in about 1/3 cup of cold water.

Step 2

Start chopping the meat. After 2 minutes, lift the lid and check if there are any visible sinews left in the meat; if so, remove them.

Step 3

For the third time, beat the meat, adding the same amount of water. By this point, the minced meat should have a very smooth, sticky texture similar to that of a soufflé. To achieve the perfect texture, you can pass the mixture through a fine sieve. Place the minced meat in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, or preferably overnight, to let it rest.

Step 4

Finely chop the onion, so that the pieces are roughly the size of a grain of rice.

Step 5

Add chopped onion, beaten eggs, flour (it's better to sift it), milk, and cognac to the prepared minced meat. Mix well.

Step 6

Place the minced meat in a large bowl (the larger the bowl, the easier it will be to work with). Start kneading the meat by patting it down from all sides with your palm and gathering the mixture towards the center of the bowl. Continue kneading the meat this way for about 10 minutes, until you achieve a very sticky, completely homogeneous mass.

Step 7

Place a bowl and a pot of cold water nearby. Wet your hands with water and shape the minced meat into a ball about 15–18 cm in diameter (large enough to fit in a man's palm). Lower it into the pot of cold water.

Step 8

Moisten your hands again and shape the entire meatball mixture this way. You can cook all the meatballs in one pot, and they won't stick together, but the pot needs to be large enough. Place the pot with the meatballs over medium heat, cover it with a lid, and bring to a boil. Remove the lid and cook the meatballs for about 40 minutes.