Bulgur Kofte Balls

For any of you that have eaten a Meze/Mezze style meal, you would have no doubt tried Bulgur Koftes in the hot meze selection. They are the deep fried, cone shaped parcels, filled with fried mince, onions and parsley, and best served with a generous squeeze of lemon juice (much like the picture below). 

They are delicious, but a tad fiddly to make and require some skill and experience, so today, I came up with my own, slightly easier version by combining the Bulgur Wheat coated idea with my Mum's Kofte Balls. Again, just leave out the salt and chilli for really little ones and add after you have separated their portions.

I am very proud of this recipe, and although they are a little laborious, they are definitely worth it! So set aside sometime and spread out the procedure throughout the day :-) 

Make sure you have lots of fresh lemon wedges to hand!

Recipe (will make roughly 40-50 balls)

400g Lean Beef Mince

1 large white onion, very finely chopped

4 heaped tablespoons flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

2 very large potatoes (think baking potato size), grated and with all excess water drained (I squeeze the water from the grated potato through a sieve)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 level teaspoon black pepper 

3 eggs

3 heaped tablespoons flour

1 large cup fine bulgar wheat

3/4 large cup freshly boiled water
A pinch of chilli flakes

Salt and pepper to season 

Sunflower oil (will explain quantities later)

Lemon wedges to serve

Method:

In a dish, mix together the bulgar wheat, boiled water, chilli flakes and season with salt and pepper (leave out salt and chilli if making for little ones) and put to one side for at least an hour.

Mix together the mince, onion, potato, parsley, 1 egg, salt and pepper together in a bowl. This will take a few minutes to make sure that all of the ingredients are well amalgamated and the mince has really been broken down. 

Once you are happy with the consistency of the mixture, roll into balls, slightly smaller than the size of a golf ball. TOP TIP: Keep wetting your hands to make the balls easier to roll and so that the mixture doesn't stick to your hands. 

Put the flour in a dish, whisk up the 2 remaining eggs in another dish and lay beside the dish with the bulgar wheat.

Roll the balls in the flour, then the egg and finally coat in the bulgur. Do this for all of the Kofte balls. 

In a deep frying pan, pour in enough sunflower oil so that its about 1cm up from the bottom of the pan. Heat on a high heat until very, very hot (test with a small piece of the mixture - if it sizzles rapidly and fries as soon as it hits the pan, then the oil is hot enough). 

Once the oil is really hot, shallow fry the balls in 2-3 batches for around 7-10 minutes each time, turning a few times during cooking (be very careful) so that the balls are a nice golden brown colour all over (but not burnt, obviously!)

Squeeze over the lemon juice and enjoy!