Lamb and quinoa kofte

Serves: 4
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 0 hr 40 mins
Ingredients
  • Serves four which will give you two koftes per person
  • 100g quinoa
  • Bunch parsley
  • Bunch dill
  • Bunch coriander
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds
  • Good pinch chilli flakes
  • 500g lamb mince
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • Salt and pepper
  • FOR THE ANCHOVY AND OLIVE SAUCE:
  • Small tin anchovy fillets
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
  • Approx 50g green, stoned olives
  • Bunch mint
  • 50mls olive oil
  • Juice of 1 lemon

Cook the quinoa in boiling water for about 10 minutes and then drain and allow it to cool. You can blitz the herbs in a food processor or else chop by hand. Put all the ingredients for the kofte in a bowl and mix really well. It may be easier to do this with your hands.

Have a little bowl of olive oil handy, so that you can oil up your hands and then shape the mixture into cigar shapes (about eight in total) and lay them on a baking tray and put them in the fridge until you are ready to cook. It’s ideal if you can leave them in there for about an hour. You can cook these a bunch of different ways. You can fry them in some olive oil, but my grill was strong enough that they grilled under a high heat (but needed to be turned every few minutes to get evenly browned). You could also bake them for about 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees/gas 4. They don’t take long to cook, but a little charring goes a long way in terms of flavour.

Blitz all the ingredients for the sauce together in a food processor (or mix and chop everything by hand) and season to taste.

Domini Kemp

Domini Kemp

Domini Kemp, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a chef and food writer