Tarun Kapoor is executive chef at Doha’s Horizon Manor Hotel. Send your feedback to:
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Kofta or kafta is a term which represents a grounded meat ball flavoured with herbs, spices and other ingredients and is cooked in oven or griddle or skewered and usually served dry. There are numerous variants available in almost every country. The below mentioned recipe is the Arabic chicken kofta.
The meat is combined with the other ingredients and grounded together to blend all the ingredients and to make the meat smooth and soft while eating. The shape can vary from balls to flat patties, thin fingers or torpedo-shaped depending on the choice and cooking method. Common choices for making kofta include beef, lamb and chicken although some vegetarian versions are also prepared by mincing vegetables and either frying them or cooking on hot plate.
Smaller kofta make great appetisers, however, they can also be stewed in gravy or sauce to be served as main course. There’s basically no hard and fast rule for making kofta and one can try and experiment with the available ingredients to make their own signature kofta.
Chicken kofta
Ingredients
Ground chicken 500g
Onion, chop ½ cup
Garlic, chop 1 tbsp
Parsley, chop 2 tbsp
Mint leaves chopped 1 tbsp
Egg 1 no
Cumin powder 1 tsp
Bell pepper, diced 2 tbsp
Bread crumbs 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Black pepper, crushed to taste
Olive oil 3-5 tbsp
Method
Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and saute garlic and onion till light and translucent.
Add cumin powder and remove from flame.
Add this to grounded chicken along with the remaining ingredients and mix well to combine the ingredients.
Divide the meat equally into desired size and shape into flat patties.
Shallow fry in a heavy bottom pan over medium heat.
Flip the sides to cook and brown evenly.
Once cooked, check by piercing a knife, the chicken is cooked when the juices run clear.
Serve hot along with choice of salad and bread.
Note: You can also skewer the mince and cook over charcoal to get smokey flavored kofta.
Makaroons
The French have their macaroons, the Italians have their macaroni, the Lebanese their makaroons. It resembles Italian version as it is made with flour or semolina and water into dough and can be sweet or savoury. The below recipe is for the sweet version. They are also called Zeinab’s fingers in local language and are flavoured with anise, fennel and mahlab. Fried and coated with sugar syrup they are usually served during Ramadan or when someone special visits the family. The texture resembles a bee’s wax as the dough is rubbed against a sieve or vegetable or cheese grater. They can be kept for almost a week in a tightly closed jar in refrigerator.
The Lebanese macaroon is very different from the French one. For one thing, the French macaroons are made from almond powder, egg whites and sugar whereas the Lebanese ones are made out of semolina, oil and some spices.
Also, the French Macaroon is baked in the oven while the Lebanese variant is deep fried and then immersed in sugar syrup. The secret ingredient that makes this an indulgent dessert is the mahlab powder which is made from the seeds of cherry. The cherry stones are cracked to extract the seed kernel which is grounded to powder. The flavour resembles the combined flavour of bitter almond and cherry and is used to sharpen desserts
Makaroons
Ingredients
Semolina 300g
Flour 200g
Sugar 3 tbsp
Olive oil 2-3 tbsp
Mahlab powder 1 tsp
Aniseed powder 1 tsp
Yeast 1 tsp
Water 400 ml
Salt (a pinch)
Oil to fry
For sugar syrup
Sugar 500g
Water 500ml
For garnish
Pistachio powder to garnish
Method
Combine flour, semolina, sugar, mahlab powder and aniseed powder in bowl.
Using water and olive oil, make a firm dough, and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
Roll the dough into cylindrical shape and divide into equal portions using a knife.
Take a cheese or vegetable grater and place the divided dough on it and using two fingers roll towards self to give the grater impression on the dough and shape it somewhat like a gnocchi.
Repeat this for remaining dough and deep fry over medium heat to a golden brown colour.
Dip in the prepared sugar syrup and leave for 30 minutes to allow them to absorb the sugar syrup.
Remove from sugar syrup and allow to stand on a sieve to remove excess sugar syrup.
Garnish with pistachio powder and serve.
Chicken kofta
