Lady's thighs meatballs - Kadinbudu köfte

The trouble of making lunch everyday is, of course, I need to think in advance what I am going to cook.  I generally start to think about it after my breakfast and then I have one or two hours before the lunch has to be ready.  That is only a part of the problem.  Then when I finally decide, I may not have all the ingredients I need.  I may have to go to the shops quickly to buy the missing ingredient.  In my case that's not very easy, as I have to take two little kids with me and it takes to long just to get out of the door with those two.  Yes I know, I should plan everything ahead, but I am not that organized and I like being a little bit spontaneous.  I only plan some of the meals in advance but not every meal.  Most of the time, I cook with what I already have in my fridge or freezer.  If I'm missing an ingredient then I try to substitute it the best way I can.
This meal was again something I was planning on cooking for a while now, but I never got around it.  Somehow it looked a little complicated to me but it wasn't at all complicated.  I'll be making this again for sure.  It's a Turkish dish and a very classic one.  The name is translated exactly like in the title and I believe it's just showing an appreciation for women.  It's a very easy recipe but if you're doing it very first time give yourself an hour for the preparation (this excludes the cooking time).


Lady's tighs meatballs - Kadinbudu köfte

500 g minced meat - beef

about half a cup of chopped parsley

1 medium onion - grated or finely chopped

3 eggs

1 teasppon of salt 

1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

1 teaspoon of ground cumin
2 tablespoons of rice

2 tablespoons of flour

oil to fry ( sunflower or olive oil is fine here but I recommend a mixture of both) 

Start with boiling the rice in a pan.  When they are cooked, leave them on a colander to drain the water and let it cool.  Take a non-stick pan, put half of the minced meat in and start cooking.  Add the onions to the meat and cook them together with the meat.  Let them cool before you mix the cooked meat and onions to the rest of the ingredients.  Put the raw half of the meat in a bowl, mix in 1 egg, the salt and the spices.  When they are all mixed well, add in the cooked meat and onions and last stir in the rice together with parsley.  You shouldn't add the rice at the beginning because they will be mashed until you are done with mixing everything.  Then take a scoop from the mixture and shape it into oval looking meatballs.  See photo below. 

When you are ready to fry them, first beat the 2 eggs in a bowl.  Put your flour on a flat plate.  Heat up your pan to high heat with a lot of oil to fry because these lovely meatballs need a lot of oil to cook nicely with the eggs.  When it's ready dip the meatballs first into the flour and make sure they are covered all over with it.  Then dip them into the eggs and start frying them.  You can lover the heat to medium after they are all in otherwise you may end up with too brown egg crust. 

Best way to eat this dish is with fries or a potato salad or just bread.  I definitely recommend to have a juicy tomato salad or the typical (and very Turkish) çoban (Choban) salad with it. (Shepperd's salad and that will be for another post sometime in the future).