Cig Köfte (pronounced Yig kofte) is a very popular Turkish recipe where the term "Cig" means "uncooked" or also "raw" and "köfte" is meatball. That is, a type of uncooked meatball. This is not very strange if we think of the steak tartare, for example, but the fact that it incorporates bulgur, the ground wheat grain, equivalent to the Maghreb couscous, makes it difficult to understand this lack of cooking.
If I also tell you that it was common - and still is in certain parts of Anatolia - to incorporate raw meat without the addition of vinegar or any other type of acid that allows cold cooking, makes this dish even more incomprehensible.
The secret of the cig köfte is to use fine-grained bulgur and forcefully knead the dough.
INGREDIENTS :
- 250 grams (9 oz) of potatoes
- 250 grams (9 oz) of fine bulgur or couscous (also fine grain)
- 2 tablespoons red pepper paste *
- 1 medium red onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon parsley powder or finely chopped
- Lettuce
- Lemon
* Red pepper paste is a very common condiment in Turkey. Housewives in the area use it for almost everything. An easy way to make it in the West - if you can't find it anywhere - is to buy a can of roasted red peppers and put them through the blender. And if the flavor of the red pepper does not convince you, simply use fried tomato.
In general, the proportion of potatoes and bulgur should be the same, so if you want to make more cig köfte, use double of potatoes and double of bulgur. The measurements that I reflect would be enough for 4 people.
Cook the potatoes with the skin and when they cool, put them in the fridge for at least 8 hours. This operation is done so that the potatoes harden and it is possible to grate them.
Take them out of the fridge, peel and grate. Mix the grated potato with the bulgur, the pepper paste, the salt, the black pepper, the grated onion, the parsley, the finely chopped garlic clove and the ground cumin. Now be patient because it must be kneaded vigorously for at least 1 hour, just as if we were making the dough of a bread. In the end we will have a compact mass.
We test it and rectify some ingredient (salt or black pepper, for example) and if we have to add we will have to knead for about 5 more minutes. If not, we pinch a portion and shape it into a cylinder in the palm of our hand. We press to leave our fingers well marked. So we proceed until the dough is finished. It is generally served on a tray with a bottom of lettuce leaves that must be eaten with the fingers, rolling them around, as well as with lemon slices to dress them.
As I mentioned at the beginning a few years ago, raw meat was used. However, due to the distrust of the Turkish consumer towards the wholesomeness of meats, raw consumption has practically disappeared from their diet.