Binnur's Turkish Cookbook

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Sunday, June 03, 2007

Cig Kofte

(Yalanci Cig Kofte)

Cig Kofte
300 gr potatoes, boiled, leave in the fridge overnight, then peel and grate
300 gr bulgur, small grain, washed, drained
1 medium size onion, grated
1-2 garlic cloves, grated
3 tbsp red pepper paste
1 tsp cumin
Crushed pepper, adjust the amount as you wish
1 tsp salt
1 pinch black pepper
1 bunch of parsley, washed, drained, finely chopped, divided

Romaine salad, washed, drained
2 fresh green onions, finely chopped
Lemon wedges

Place grated potatoes, bulgur, onion, garlic, red pepper paste, cumin, crushed pepper, salt and black pepper in a large bowl. Weigh down and knead them very well all together for about 45 minutes. Add half of the parsley and knead 5 more minutes. Take a small piece, give it a cylinder shape with your palms, squeeze and leave finger marks on it as seen in the picture.

Place the green salad leaves on a service plate. Arrange the Cig Kofte on them. Sprinkle the rest of the parsley and chopped green onions all over the top. Serve with lemon wedges.
If you like to dip into the sauce, here;

Place the isot in a small bowl and add mixture of water and a little bit of tomato paste. Then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and whisk. That's it! Adjust the amount of ingredients according to your desire:)

* Original Cig Kofte (cig means raw) traditionally contains raw meat. After mad-cow disease, as a family we stopped eating raw meat. So now I make Cig Kofte without it :)

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25 Comments:

At 10:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

merhaba ben bu tarifi 1 cup ceviz ekleyerek yapiyorum,sogan ve sarmisakla iyice eziyorum, tavsiye ederim. onun da hos bir tadi oluyor. sitenizdeki guzel tariflerin devami dilegi ile hoscakalin

 
At 4:03 AM, Blogger kattebelletje said...

That is a long time kneading! Is it to make the bulghur soft? How much raw meat did you use to add, and did you knead it along with the other ingredients?

 
At 4:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

looks great!

 
At 1:22 PM, Blogger Binnur said...

Merhaba,
Ilk firsatta ceviz ekleyerek deneyecegim, cok lezzetli olacagina eminim, tarif icin tesekkur ederim:)
Sevgilerimle,

 
At 11:48 PM, Blogger Binnur said...

Hi kattebelletje,
Raw meat and bulgur get softened and mix well through kneading which takes some time. It is the most important part of the dish and shouldn't be skiped:) You can replace the potato with the raw ground beef (two times ground) and the rest is the same.

 
At 7:22 PM, Blogger S said...

Oh, I have not forgotten the delicious raw meat Kufte's!

I remember seeing the raw 100% no-fat red meat ready for the grinding machine. The elbow grease that went into melding the meat with the fine wet bulgur. The end result with mint and salt. Yummmm. I used to gobble it up. Sigh.

I will have to try this recipe. I trust it will be almost just as good as the one with meat.

Thank you.

 
At 10:27 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

merhaba binur;
300 gr patates yaklasik kac tane paates ediyor?

 
At 4:45 PM, Blogger Binnur said...

2 adet orta boy patates asagi yukari 300 gr. kadar ediyor. Veya 3 kucuk patates de olabilir:)
Sevgilerimle,

 
At 6:54 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Binnur,
I love your site and have made some of your delicious recipes. I am just wondering, I used to eat a dish which looked like this one but it was made with lentils, tomato and I think bulghur. It was served with this very delicious dip which was as good or better than the lentil balls. The dip was probably tomato based, and it was cooked and served hot. I have tried to duplicate it (by cooking up onion, pepper, and tomatoes with spices and grinding it up) but can't seem to replicate it (and the restaurant is now closed). I'd love to see a similar recipe from you. Thanks so much and I appreciate how available you have made Turkish cooking.
Sincerely,
Deb

 
At 11:04 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

MMM! Thanks - I have been looking around for good recipes for this!

BTW - cooking does NOT kill the prions that cause BSE or its human variant. So knock yourself out with the rawmeat!

 
At 9:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Binnur! I absolutely LOVE your website and cook recipes from it for my Turkish husband regularly. I lived with him in Turkey for 8 months and we now live in Australia where I am from. Cig Kofte was one of my favourite things to eat there!! My husband always said how difficult it was to make but i'm going to give this a go tomorrow! Thanks again for a wonderful resource! XXX Jenny

 
At 7:12 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Binnur,
There is a question, as I searched for this dish, they have mentioned that the crushed pepper is said to "cook" the meat. So if I couldn't find the crushed pepper which is a special kind of pepper, is it still possible that I make this food?
Thnx

 
At 2:38 PM, Blogger Binnur said...

Hi,
* Original Cig Kofte (cig means raw) traditionally contains raw meat. After mad-cow disease, as a family we stopped eating raw meat. So now I make Cig Kofte without it :)

 
At 6:10 AM, Anonymous Carren said...

I love this recipe,in fact I love all your recipes. I have lived in Turkey since 15 years and whenever I cook for any of my friends or family then I always use your site.my mother in law has always been impressed :)
My son and I are moving back to the UK soon and I will continue to use your recipes there. Thank you Binnur :)

 
At 10:21 AM, Blogger AnnaOriflame said...

Thank You for this recipe!!! I look all over for this. I love your blog. Keep posting recipes and new ideas.

 
At 11:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello,never tried and never tasted,do I really need to knead them for 45 minutes?and should the bulgur be cooked or just poured over with hot water.I start to cook such new things:), Pola

 
At 4:56 PM, Blogger Binnur said...

Hi Pola,
The kneading process is the key part of this dish to make sure that the bulgur will be cooked during this period:)

 
At 5:52 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

When I was in the Peace Corps many years ago, I remember my landlord's wife and a number of other women making a mountain of these for some special occasion. It took them a long time, but it was a social event as much as it was a kitchen chore. When meal time came, I mentioned how much I liked them and my hosts would not let me stop eating.

Since I was in Hatay, the dish was spicy, as I think it should be.

 
At 12:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your site is amazing record of lot tradinal Turkish food. Thank you. Please put recipe for bishie bread.

 
At 11:03 AM, Blogger Binnur said...

Thank you:)
I've posted Pishi and Stuffed Pishi under the pastries section, here;
http://english.turkishcookbook.com/2011/06/stuffed-pishi.html

 
At 4:18 PM, Anonymous Rebecca C said...

Hi Binnur,

First of all, I just wanted to say that I've been a long-time fan of your cookbook. I'd never had Turkish food before meeting my now-husband in graduate school a few years ago. We were good friends from working together, and I knew he really missed home (and the cuisine!), so I tried my hand at cooking a feast from your recipes for his birthday a couple of years ago. Needless to say he was quite touched (and impressed--thanks to your help), and the rest is history :-)

Since you've always managed to have everything else I was looking for, I'm wondering if you happen to have the recipe for the sauce typically served with çiğ köfte? This was one of my favorite new finds when I was in Istanbul visiting family this summer--it's also a dish my teenage sister-in-law loves, and she is visiting us in in the US for the next couple of weeks--so I'm hoping to make it soon! As someone else mentioned above, there is a sauce they usually serve with this that is just amazing, but I cannot find a recipe for it anywhere. I'm fairly certain isot pepper is a major ingredient in it, but I may be wrong; I'm going strictly by what I recall of the taste/heat, and isot is still relatively new to me (not that that stopped me from buying it at the spice bazaar, haha!)

Çok teşekkürler--for the help, and for the great recipes!

 
At 6:16 PM, Blogger Binnur said...

Hi,
Thank you for the lovely comment and sharing your lovely story:)

You are right, the main ingredient in this sauce is isot. Place the isot in a small bowl and add mixture of water and a little bit of tomato paste. Then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and whisk. That's it!

Adjust the amount of ingredients according to your desire:)

I wish you both happiness:)

 
At 5:22 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Never put potatoes in cig kofte the real resipe only consits of kofte bulger fine grained cracked wheat,garlic,dried mint and paprika, spicy paprika paste flakes.first put a little boiling water over the bulgur to soften i recomened a cup as a time depending on amount of bulgur and wait for to take all the water about half an hour then when your bulgur is soft enoughto feel like sponge add the the rest of you spices ( you dont have to use meat) but if you do put it in with the spicy paste and paprika also a quart of lemon when mixing in the tray is better. Mix everything together and cover with stretch for about an hour then kneed again until it is all soft but sticky. Also in antep they will throw a small piece on the celling to see if it sticks if it does its ready. You can add spice as you wish there is no rule also serve on iceberg lettuce witj lemon squeezed over.

 
At 7:58 AM, Anonymous adik said...

niye bu tarifeleri copye yapamiyoruz? izin mi lazim?
why can't we print these recipes? it is very inconvenient....

 
At 9:44 AM, Blogger Binnur said...

Kopyalamak icin nasil izin alinir veya verilir hic bir fikrim yok:) Yardimci olmak isterdim ama ben bir sorun goremiyorum.

 

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