Onion Koftas

Since Christmeidukkah is only a week away, I’ve been trying out some of the finger foods that I would like to serve at the shindig. One dish that I tried recently was my Uncle J’s koftas. He made them for me and my sister when we visited him and my aunt in Baltimore a couple of months ago. He provided me with the basic outline of ingredients and preparation, so I decided to give it a shot this week. I was hoping that I could serve the koftas with toothpicks, but I soon realized that these koftas cannot qualify as a finger food, but are a fantastic entrée on their own. Served with some daal and rice, or in a deli-roll, these koftas will make you very happy. At least they made me very happy.

For the meatballs:

1 lb. lean ground beef
½ cup chopped onion
1 tsp. minced ginger
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 serrano chili
1 tsp. ground red pepper
1/8 tsp. turmeric
¼ tsp. salt

For the sauce:

2 T oil
1 cup sliced onions
1 tsp. minced ginger
1 tsp. minced garlic
½ cup chopped cilantro
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup water

Directions:

For the meatballs, add onion through salt into a blender. Add this mixture to the ground beef and mix well. Form the meat into little meatballs – just about 2 inches round. Set aside.


In a heavy-bottomed (hee, hee) pan, heat oil and sauté the onions until they become soft and kind of golden brown. Add the ginger, garlic, cilantro, salt, and water. Bring to a simmer.




Add the meatballs to the pan.


After about five minutes, rotate the meatballs in the pot, so that they get browned on all sides. Cook for about 20 minutes – rotating the meatballs every 5 minutes or so.


Enjoy!!