Kofta b'siniyah

I am having a very busy week and my plan to post earlier this week did not happen. Still, I do want to post because my promise to myself this year is that I will post once a week. I made this dish weeks ago when I borrowed Jerusalem from the library. It is a beautiful cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. The book has since been returned to the library and these meatballs are long gone but I still crave for it. I am thinking about purchasing the book. Though currently I am doing a low-fat-vegetarian-diet, but I do crave meat every now and then. If you like middle eastern dish, you should check this out. It has a range of recipes from appetizer, salad, soup, meat, and dessert.

This recipe is really easy. Mix ground lamb and beef with minced onion and garlic. I manually minced the onions. This particular onion was a spicy one. I ended up with tears running down my cheek! I was too lazy to use a food processor because I don't want to clean it, but I think next time I will do so!

Add some chopped pine nuts.

Add finely chopped parsley and some spices. I improvised on the spices and use a combination of cumin, coriander, cinnamon, paprika, salt and pepper. I've also added minced serrano pepper. I used 1 only and removed the seeds.

Combine the mixture by hand.

Shape into little balls. I use a scale and weigh each one at 25 grams.

Ready for searing and baking.

I sear them on a non stick pan at medium heat. The purpose of searing them is to seal in the juice. Make sure you sear them on all sides. Then bake in a 400' F pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes or until done.

Recipe: Jerusalem

Other recipes for Kofta:
Turkish Meatballs Kofta at Food.com
Kofta Kebabs at AllRecipes
Kofta Kebabs with Tzatziki sauce at Food Network