Ingredients

For its filling:

  1. –    1 kg (2 lb) ground meat (beef), lean
  2. –    1 kg (2 lb) onion, finely chopped
  3. –    125 gr (4 oz) margarine or butter
  4. –    4 tbsp olive oil
  5. –    1 cup crumbled walnuts
  6. –    2 tsp cumin
  7. –    2 tsp black pepper
  8. –    2 tsp paprika powder
  9. –    2 tsp thyme
  10. –    3 tsp salt
  11. –    1/2 tbsp pepper paste
  12. –    ½ cup parsley, finely chopped
  13. –    2 green hot pepper, finely chopped

For its dough:

  1. –    2 cups ground bulgur
  2. –    1 cup semolina
  3. –    1 cup flour
  4. –    2  cups water
  5. –    2 eggs
  6. –    ½ tbsp pepper paste
  7. –    2 tsp cumin
  8. –    2 tsp salt
  9. –    2 tsp black pepper
  10. –    2 tsp paprika powder

For boiling:

  1. –    1 lemon
  2. –    1 tsp salt
  3. –    A pot of water

Preparations:

First, we prepare its filling mixture so that we have enough time to let it cool. This is so important as we can’t stuff the dough balls with the mixture if it’s still warm. It must get thicker while waiting, that’s why we use margarine or butter. If you use any kind of oil, you have difficulty in stuffing.

Put ground meat in a pot and cook it over medium heat until it absorbs the water it releases. Then add chopped onion and stir occasionally. Add margarine or butter into it and stir. When the margarine melts and is absorbed, add salt and 4 tbsp olive oil. Put pepper paste and stir. When it is completely combined, add chopped parsley and green hot pepper. Season it with cumin, black pepper, paprika powder, thyme. Then add a cup of walnut and stir. Take it from the heat, do not let parsley and green pepper cook well. Now stir it to combine all well. Let it cool. The wait may be longer than 2 hours as the mixture must be cold and thick enough. If you like, you can prepare this filling mixture overnight.

Now it’s time for the dough. Put bulgur in a tray and soak it with cold water. Then put semolina in the same tray separately and soak it as well. 2 cups of water is enough for both of them. Cover the tray and wait for about 15 minutes. After this time, season it with the spices. Then break the eggs. Combine them. And finally, put flour and knead it well.

Take a piece of dough, bigger than a walnut. Shape it in your hand. Start pressing your thumb into this piece of dough and turn it around itself to shape. This shell should be as thin as you can make. Then put 1 tbsp of the filling mixture into this shape and close the shape again with your hands. Your hands must be wet to shape the dough, so put a bowl of cold water near you to wet your hands occasionally while shaping it.

After you finish all the dough, heat water in a pot and bring it to boil. Pour lemon juice and add 1 tsp salt into the water. This will protect the koftes to lose their shapes. Boil them about 10 minutes. when they are cooked, all of them starts to float in the boiling water. You can also check if it is cooked with a special method. Take one of them on a plate, press the slotted spoon on the kofte gently (See the video.)If you hear the kofte is whispering when you press, it is done. If you don’t hear this sound, let it boil a few minutes more.

As the process of making icli kofte is difficult and long, I wanted to show you the steps of it in this video. Luckily mom and dad visited us and we had the reason for making icli kofte to celebrate their visit. I learnt how to make icli kofte from mom, the greatest cook I’ve seen. So in this video she is making icli kofte and I helped her. It would be so hard for me without her. When we were making it, dad was around us waiting for the time he would eat one. At last, we finished and we served it to dad. You see how he enjoyed his lunch. We of course use fork and knife in everyday life, but traditionally people eat icli kofte with hands. You can also squeeze lemon on each kofte while eating.