I cut this recipe out of a Chatelaine magazine a long time ago. Every time I flipped through the meat section of my recipe binder I drooled when I came across this recipe. I finally broke down and spent $11 on 500g of ground lamb at Save on Foods and made us a good Greek dinner. Greek salad, greek potatoes and lamb koftas. Can’t go wrong there!
I quite enjoyed the lamb koftas and would definitely make them again. I think the recipe is a keeper, and it’s pretty simple compared to some others I’ve seen. I think the koftas would be great on the BBQ, served in pita bread with lots of tzatziki, lettuce and tomatoes. I just wish ground lamb would come on sale more often!
Jay thought the meat could use a little less allspice and/or cinnamon. But, he’d never had lamb koftas before so he had nothing to compare them too. If you’re concerned that whomever you’re feeding the dish to might be a little put off by the seasoning, I’d recommend reducing the allspice and cinnamon slightly.
Oh, and I suppose I should mention I started a small fire while cooking these puppies. My oven has three broil settings – high, medium and low. I started cooking them on the medium broiler setting. As you can see from the photos, I forgot to use a rack… Jay suggested this was the reason for the fire. The drippings on the cookie sheet caught fire… It made for an exciting 2 minutes while I used tongs to fold the foil over to put out the flames. I then turned the broiler to low and cooked the other side of the koftas on low. That worked fine too, and they were still nicely browned. I actually over-cooked them a bit, so low may have been the better way to go from the start. I suppose if you used a broiler pan with slots so the grease could fall below, or even a rack so the grease wasn’t so close to the broiler, you’d be increasing the level of safety greatly. Learn from my mistakes folks – that’s what I’m here for 🙂
Enjoy!
Lamb Koftas
Makes 4 servings
Prep time 15 minutes
Cook time 15 minutes
Ingredients
Instructions
- If using wooden skewers, soak skewers in water. Place an oven rack in top third of oven. Preheat broiler. Place a rack on a large rimmed baking sheet. Spray rack with oil.
- Whisk egg in a bowl. Stir in oatmeal, cinnamon, garlic powder, allspice, salt and parsley. Add lamb. Using a fork or your hands, gently mix together. Do not overwork, or koftas will be tough.
- Divide meat mixture into 8 portions. Form each into a small log, about 5 in. long. Thread 1 skewer through centre of each log. Gently flatten and shape meat firmly around skewer. Place on the prepared rack on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining meat mixture and skewers.
- Broil 5 min, then gently turn. Continue to broil until meat feels firm to the touch, 4 to 5 more min.
- Serve with tzatziki. Garnish with chopped tomatoes and parsley if desired.
Notes
Recipe has been copied from Chatelaine magazine. I have no recommendations to change it, except I used metal skewers instead of wooden skewers. They were really long so I was able to put 2 koftas on one skewer. It’s a good idea to separate the meat into 8 similarly sized portions before starting to skewer. I did it as I went, ending up with larger portions, which is why I only had 5 koftas. Also, I forgot to use a rack when I cooked mine, and I think they’d be better with the rack.
Here’s the original recipe: Chatelaine Magazine Lamb Koftas
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