Kofta and Cucumber Yoghurt

You know those days when you can’t decide what to make and then you begin that search through the freezer to see what surprises you find………and all you can see is a heap of leftovers (TMX is great for that) and some random pack of mince that you don’t remember buying…..or is that just my freezer???

Anyway, my hubby was in charge of dinner that night and the mince was lamb, and so his experiment began. Since that day, his lamb Kofta has been a real hit with Miss Muppet (2 and 1/2 yrs) and she once polished off 5 of these little babies. Normally he whips these up while I am at work, so I never get to watch him do it, but today I was home, and he did it before he left for work. And so, here is his version of Kofta. It is a simple and tasty little number and great for the whole family. You can add more or less spice, depending on your family’s tastes, but this recipe is tasty just as it is!

Ingredients

1 onion

1 clove garlic

600gm lamb mince

1 1/4 tsp cumin seeds

3/4 tsp ground coriander

1 1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

pinch salt

handful of parsley

soaked kebab sticks so they don’t burn when you cook them

Method:

1. Place coriander, cumin seeds, paprika, salt & chilli flakes into the TMX bowl. Closed the lid and grind on Speed 9 for 6 secs to grind the seeds and mix the spices.
2. Add onion, garlic & parsley and chop for 2 seconds on Speed 8. Scrape down the bowl, and chop again for 2 seconds at Speed 8
3. Add mince and set to Reverse Speed 4 for 5 seconds. Scrape down bowl and again mix at Reverse Speed 4 for 5 seconds.
4. Using the Kebab sticks, mould the Kofta around the top 1/3 of the stick and repeat until all of the mixture is used.
5. Place in refrigerator for at least 30 mins so that the flavour can develop.
6. Cook on BBQ until brown on the outside and cooked through – but still moist.
7. Serve with TMX Rice

Cucumber Yoghurt

Ingredients:

1 small garlic clove

small handful of parsley

1 small Lebanese cucumber

1 cup natural yogurt

Juice from 1/2 lemon

salt/pepper to taste

Method:

1. Add garlic and parsley to the bowl and chop for 2 seconds on Speed 8. Scrape down bowl and repeat.
2. Add cucumber and Chop on Speed 5 for 3 seconds. Check the size of your cucumber and mix again if still too big. Be careful not to turn this into juice (yuk!)
3. Add yoghurt, lemon juice and salt & Pepper, then mix on Reverse Speed 3 for 4 seconds to combine the ingredients.
4. Serve with Kofta and Rice

Hints & Tips

• We only had cumin seeds so we needed to grind them, but if you have ground cumin you can use this and just turbo once to mix the spices.
• The longer that you leave the kofta in the fridge, the more developed the flavour will become
• You can make your kofta larger on the stick, but beware…..it can end up looking like poo on a stick!
• I made TMX rice as per usual but in the last 5 minutes, I added some pine nuts for a bit of crunch and texture in the rice
• You could use mint in the Yoghurt dressing instead of parsley – it would be really fresh. We didn’t have any, so we just made do