Traditional Turkish Home Cooking: Baked Meatballs or Fırın Köfte
This oven-baked version of classic Turkish köfte combines juicy meatballs with tender potatoes, vibrant tomato sauce, and aromatic herbs, creating a one-pan dish full of flavour and warmth. If you shape it in a particiular way, then it would be called “Izmir Köfte”, originating from the Aegean region, named after the city of Izmir.
Made with 35% fat content minced beef, onion, garlic, breadcrumbs, egg, and spices, the köfte mixture is shaped and then baked alongside potatoes and peppers in a rich tomato sauce. The slow cooking allows the flavours to meld, resulting in tender, juicy köfte and perfectly cooked, soft potatoes.
📌Some people like to chop the onions and garlic really finely, but I find that a bit time-consuming, so I usually just blitz them. Either way works, and I think the onion juices help make the köfte even juicier and more tender. The important thing here is to mix it really well so everything is fully combined, and ideally let the mixture rest overnight. Then you can shape the köfte and cook it.
📌In Türkiye, this dish traditionally includes a type of pepper known as kıl pepper. However, these peppers can be difficult to find outside of Türkiye, so padrón peppers are a great substitute. You can also use any pepper you prefer, depending on the flavor profile you enjoy.
📌You can either lightly par-fry the meatballs and potatoes before baking them in the oven, or, for a lighter and healthier option—as I prefer—you may first roast them without any sauce and then finish baking them with the sauce.
📌You can check out the full recipe on https://firinforno.com/firin-kofte-turkish-baked-meatballs/
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2 Comments
❤
love this one