MEATBALLS, IZMIR STYLE (İzmir Köfte)

Izmir is one of the most beautiful cities in Turkey, if not in the world. Warm weather, radiant sea, a long waterfront to walk by on starry nights... Ahhh, I shall go to Izmir soon. In the meantime, we can console ourselves by diving into an Izmir style dish and imagine the warm breeze on our faces.

Ingredients:

• 400 g minced beef
• 1 onion
• Parsley, half pack
• 3 slices of stale bread (without the crust)
• 1 egg yolk
• Blackpepper, half teaspoon
• Red pepper flakes (or paprika), half teaspoon
• Salt, half teaspoon
• Frying oil

For the sauce:

• 2 tablespoons of oil
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 2 tomatoes
• 1/2 table spoon of salcha (or tomato paste)
• 100 mL water
• Salt

Preparation:

• In a bowl add meat, finely diced onion, chopped parsley, crumbled bread, egg yolk, salt and the spices.
• Start kneading and mixing with your hand by both squeezing and pressing the ingredients until everything comes together and mixed well. The egg yolk served as a paste but we need to make sure that it is evenly distributed so continue mixing roughly about 10 minutes.
• From the doughy meat mixture, grab walnut sized (or bigger, as you like) pieces, tap in your palm and give an oval shape. If you make it too chubby, it might stay rare. So oval shape helps it to be fully cooked.
• Align the individual meatballs on a wide plate, cover with clingfilm and leave them to rest in the fridge for 1-2 hours. (You may skip this step and fry them right away but having them rested in the cold gives better results.)
• Fry in frying oil and take them into a shallow pan.
• In a separate pan, to prepare the sauce; roast the garlic in oil.
• Add salcha and roast for another 2 minutes.
• Add water and salt, boil for 2 minutes.
• Pour this onto the meatballs and cook on a low heat for 15 minutes.
• Serve with fried potatoes.