Lex Culinaria

Fragrant tomato and beef kofta

Type "Kofta recipe" into Google and see how many different cultures claim it as theirs: Greek, Turkish, Indian, Lebanese... the list is larger than that, I assure you. For me, kofta will always mean onion-y meat balls in a cinnamon-spiced tomato sauce topped with a runny poached egg.

I first had something similar at Bedouin Kitchen in Melbourne, and lately I've been making it at home, based on a recipe from Greg Malouf. I know you're supposed to use ground lamb for kofta - it's just that it's hard to come by decent ground lamb here, and I happen to have an embarrassing quantity of ground beef in the freezer, so ground beef is what I've been using (and honestly, I quite like it).

This is a great savoury, saucy dish for winter. It's exotic enough to be impressive for a dinner party and looks smashing served up in teeny little individual lidded casseroles. The cinnamon makes a divine smell when you lift off the lid, allowing the steam to billow out.

I like to serve this with a gorgeous creamy feta, tzatziki & garlic mashed potato and a tangy fattouche salad and a stack of warm, fresh pitas to sop up all that gorgeous sauce. In the photo above, there was no poached egg, but I do generally serve it with a quivering egg perched on top, ready to ooze creamy yolk all over the top of the sauce.

(adapted from Greg Malouf's Arabesque)

For the meatballs:

• 500 g ground beef, lamb or a combination
• 1 medium yellow onion, minced (I just whiz mine in the food processor)
• 3 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 egg
• salt & pepper
• canola oil for frying

for the sauce:

• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 1 large yellow onion, minced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 (796 ml) can pureed/crushed tomatoes
• 1 (398 ml) can diced tomatoes
• 2.5 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• salt & pepper
• 1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup corriander, chopped
• 6 eggs

Meatballs: Combine all meatball ingredients, other than the oil, in a large bowl and use your (clean) hands to squish all the ingredients together until the meat is sticky and pasty and well combined. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Fry meatballs on medium-high heat until well browned and thoroughly cooked. The better cooked they are the better they will hang together in the sauce. Set aside

Sauce: In a large pot (preferably a dutch oven) over medium high heat, saute onions, garlic and spices several minutes until they begin to colour and soften, stirring often.add remaining ingredients (except herbs and eggs) and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the meatballs to the sauce and cook for 5 more minutes. Make six depressions in the top of the sauce with the back of a soup spoon. Break the eggs gently into the depressions, place the lid over the sauce and eggs and cook for a further 5 minutes, until the eggs are set but yolks are still runny. Sprinkle the fresh herbs over ands serve straight from the pot.

Where do I start?

When I take a break, planned or not, from blogging for a few weeks, that doesn't mean I stop cooking and taking photos and tweaking recipes, scribbling on whatever is at hand. I still do all those things but, at the end of the break, I end up with a raft of intended posts and delicious photos and no idea where to start. Which is the dilemma I have now.

It's been a pretty busy few weeks chez Lex & Cakes. Cakes went back to work full time at the beginning of January and I have had a crash course in caring for a very active (and darling) baby all by myself. I realize that lots of mums do this right from the get-go, but it was nevertheless a bit of a shock and a lot more hard work than I anticipated. All of a sudden, I don't have that extra pair of hands around the house & I have to live my life (and cook, and clean, and shower) in 15 minute increments. So there hasn't been a lot of time to post.

I think I'm getting into a bit of a groove now though. I hope. At least until the next set of teeth come.

One of the meals that's been getting made a lot around here came from the little cookbook that I put together for the ladies in my Mum's group. We all contributed a few recipes for favourite family meals and i pasted them all together in a purty little booklet. Most of the recipes (including mine!) are of the family casserole/one dish genre, which is great for mums with little babies (including me!).  One of those recipes has quickly become a favourite in our house. It's really exceptionally flavourful, dead easy to make and is loaded with veggies. And if I mash a little with the back of my fork, Baby Cakes happily gobbles it up along with the rest of us.

African Stew

• 1 teaspoon Olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 large yam or sweet potato, cubed
• 1 large waxy potato, cubed
• 4 celery stalks, diced
• ½ green, red or yellow pepper, chopped
• 1 medium zucchini, cut in quarters lengthwise and then sliced in fat chunks
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1½ cups strong chicken broth (if I'm using regular broth, I just simmer it for a bit to concentrate it a bit)
• 1 980 ml can diced tomatoes in juice
• 1 540 ml (19 oz) can chickpeas, drained (optional -  I don't add it as I really don't care for chickpeas)
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons chilli powder
• 2 teaspoons ginger, minced (or 1 teaspoon dried ground ginger)
• ¼ teaspoons black pepper
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 tablespoons peanut butter

Heat olive oil in a large pot and add onion, potato, sweet potato, celery, pepper and garlic. Cook & stir for a few minutes.

Add broth, tomatoes, zucchini, chickpeas and spices. Let simmer for 25 minutes. Add raisins, peanut butter and tomato paste. Cook for 5 minutes more. Stir through lime juice. Serve.

Did you think you'd escape my first post back in a while without a photo of the Baby Cakes? Silly you.