kofta, plus- harissa redux.

A few years ago, (before we were married) my husband and I both worked at the same middle eastern restaurant- the now defunct, but once well-loved, Garbanzo's. We were both vegetarian at the time (actually, he was vegan) so we didn't get a chance to sample all of the kosher meats we served, but they always looked pretty good coming off the grill. One dish that I always thought was kind of funny looking was Kofta. (though I swear, the menu had it spelled "Kafta." Google wholeheartedly disagrees with that spelling, though.) We affectionately referred to it as "turd on a stick" because that's kind of how kofta kebabs look- haha. A hand-formed cylinder of ground beef, herbs, and spices- it's not the most beautiful dish in the world.

I also took today as an opportunity to revamp my somewhat dismal first attempt with harissa paste! Knowing we were going to have kofta served on couscous, I decided to whip up a fresh batch and see if I could do a better job than last time. I finally found a great recipe that worked out well and tasted great with our meal. (Hint- as always, roast your own pepper. It's not all oily and slimy, and you can control exactly how blackened and smoky you want it to be.)



To make the Kofta:

1 lb. lamb or ground beef
A large handful of chopped fresh parsley
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1/2 an onion, finely minced
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp ground caraway
Generous pinch of salt & pepper
1 large egg
Handful (half a cup?) of bread crumbs (we always use panko bread crumbs, for everything.)

Mix well by hand in a mixing bowl, and form into sausage shapes. Grill until medium rare.

Makes about 6-8 medium sized "sausages."

Serve on a bed of saffron couscous (or a wild rice pilaf? or whatever you want.) and fresh spinach. We probably could have done with some nice warm pita bread, but we were fine without it.

Jason garnished with a generous dollop of harissa, but WHOA NELLY! That shit is spicy, dudes! He hadn't tasted it before he threw it on there. We ended up diluting the harissa with ketchup to mellow it out.



To satisfy our toddler, who gamely ate the kofta (and proclaimed it "sausage!") but wasn't interested in the couscous or spinach, we baked some frozen potato wedges, and served them with our favorite combination of condiments- ketchup and thick tahini. (just how we used to eat our fries at Garbanzo's, yummm.)

We ended up with 2 leftover koftas and tomorrow I plan to slice them up, fry them in some oil to reheat, and toss them with spaghetti for Eli's lunch.