Long finger-shaped beef koftes baked in a tomato sauce with potato wedges soaking up everything underneath. A tray dinner that feeds a family cheaply.
Prep
30 mins
Cook
55 mins
Servings
4
Per serving
£2.30
Difficulty
medium
Koftes normally use breadcrumbs as a binder, which puts them off the menu for coeliacs. Cooked rice does the same job here and arguably better, keeping them soft without going pasty. The potatoes are browned before they go under the koftes so they do not turn to mush in the sauce.
Squeeze the grated onion in your hands over the sink to get rid of as much juice as possible, then put it in a bowl with the mince, cooked rice, half the garlic, the cumin, 1 tsp of the paprika, half the parsley, 1 tsp of the salt and the black pepper.
Wet onion is the usual reason koftes fall apart. Squeeze it harder than feels necessary.
Knead the mixture with your hands for a good 3 minutes until it turns noticeably sticky and starts to cling to the side of the bowl. Chill for 15 minutes.
That stickiness is the protein binding. Underworked kofte crumbles in the sauce.
Shape into 12 fingers about 8 cm long, pressing firmly. Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a frying pan and brown them on all sides over a high heat, about 5 minutes total. They will not be cooked through. Set aside.
Heat the oven to 200C fan. In the same pan add the remaining oil and fry the potato wedges for 6 to 8 minutes until patched with gold, then tip them into a roasting dish with the sliced onion and pepper strips.
Add the remaining garlic to the pan for 30 seconds, then the tomato puree for a minute, then the chopped tomatoes, sugar, remaining paprika, pul biber, remaining salt and 250 ml water. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Lay the koftes over the potatoes and pour the sauce evenly across the whole dish. It should come about two thirds of the way up.
If the sauce does not reach that far, top up with hot water. The potatoes need liquid to cook through.
Bake uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes until the potatoes are tender to the point of a knife and the sauce has reduced and darkened around the edges of the dish.
Rest for 10 minutes before serving, scattered with the remaining parsley.
Resting lets the koftes firm up so they lift out whole instead of breaking.