Çiğ köfte (Bulgar wheat and ground walnut kofte)

In addition to bean cuisine, Turkey is a land of the kofte or meatball. Obviously for a vegetarian, meatballs are possibly not something that one shows much interest in, however çiğ köfte (or raw meatballs) are something quite special. Yes, you did read that correctly, 'raw meatballs' and vegetarian in the same sentence. Traditionally, çiğ köfte were made with raw meat (either lamb or beef) finely pounded with soaked bulgar wheat and ground chillies, however due to food and hygiene laws in Turkey (or at least in Istanbul) it has not been possible to serve raw meat in restaurants for the last ten years or so. Hmm... what can a creative person do? Well, a vegetarian/vegan version came into being, and amazingly delicious it is too. The 'meatiness' comes from the soaked bulgar wheat and ground walnuts. It reminds me a little of some of the Georgian walnut-based pastes such as pkhali. The recipe itself is so simple, yet utterly delicious and rewarding. The only time consuming bit is the kneading of the mixture, but slip a box set in the DVD player, take your kofte mixture into the living room and knead away  :)

Ingredients

1 cup fine bulgar

1 cup ground walnuts

Boiling water (to soak the bulgar)

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses

1 onion (grated)

2 cloves of garlic (crushed)

1 tsp dried mint

1 tsp cumin

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 large ancho chillies (soaked in water for 30 minutes, deseeded and pureed)

Fresh coriander and parsley

1. Pour the boiling water over the bulgar wheat and soak for around 30 minutes

2. Pour into a muslin square (or clean dish towel) and squeeze out the excess water

3. Mix in the ground walnuts

4. To this, add the grated onion, tomato paste, herbs, spices and chillie puree and mix well. If it’s too crumbly then add a little olive oil. Texture wise you want a doughy like consistency. As an aside, if you can’t find the fine bulgar wheat needed to make this recipe, using a stick blender to ‘mush’ up the standard bulgar wheat works just as well. Don’t overdo it though as you want a little bit of texture in the mix

5. Knead this mixture for at least 10 minutes (ideally 30 minutes)

6. Pinch off golf ball sized pieces and roll into sausages, squeeze hard to create indentations

7. To eat serve in lettuce leaves with a squeeze of lemon. Delicious!