Kofta

In English, kofta is a loanword from the Hindi-Urdu कोफ़्ता / and Persian kofta meaning pounded meat. The earliest extant use of the word in the Urdu language is attested in Mulla Nusrati's ʿAlī Nāma (1665). It was first used in English in Qanoon-e-Islam (1832), and then by James Wise in 1883. The languages of the region of the kofta's origin have adopted the word with minor phonetic variations. == History==

The ancient Roman cookbook Apicius included many meatball-type recipes. The first appearance of recipes for kofta are in the earliest Arab cookbooks; Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Iran, Morocco, Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Turkey. Kofta is also a popular dish among Kurdish people and Assyrian people. In Turkey, it is "a preferred offering at communal gatherings of all kinds", according to Engin Akın. In Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is, along with dolma, lavash, harissa, kebabs, and pahlava, a dish of "clearly symbolic ethnic significance" often argued over by gastronationalists attempting to claim it as one of their own country's traditional dishes that has been co-opted by the other country. == Cooking methods ==

Meat is mixed with spices and often other ingredients such as rice, bulgur, vegetables, or eggs to form a paste. They can be grilled, fried, steamed, poached, baked, or marinated, and may be served with a rich spicy sauce or in a soup or stew. Some versions are stuffed with nuts, cheese, or eggs. A Levantine version, pronounced kafta /ˈkɑːftə/, is typically made with minced beef or lamb, mixed with onion, parsley, and spices. It can be shaped into cylinders, patties, or balls, and grilled, baked, or pan-fried, served with sauces, dips, or flatbreads. == Variants ==

Variants include , a Levantine dish made from pita bread that is stuffed with kufta and then grilled. In Iranian cuisine there are Koofteh Berenji, Koofteh Hamedani, Koofteh Nar, Koofteh Tabrizi and Koofteh Shirin-e Kermanshahi variants. Azerbaijani cuisine has Tabriz köftesi, with an unusually large diameter of some . Greek cuisine has tomatokeftedes, a vegetarian version with tomatoes, and kolokithokeftedes, with courgettes and feta cheese. Çiğ köfte is a Turkish and Armenian version made with bulgur and raw meat. In the Indian subcontinent, variants include Kofte chawal, with meat or vegetable balls in a curry sauce, served with rice. Variations use different ingredients for the balls, such as paneer, bottle gourd, chicken or mutton. and Nargisi kofta with a hard-boiled egg wrapped in the kofta mixture. Historically, Pishtha meatballs were mentioned in a Sanskrit text on medicine, the Sushruta Samhita. File:MalaiKofta.jpg |Malai kofta, a dish common in the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent File:Koofteh tabrizi.jpg |alt=Three eight-inch meatballs in sauce |Iranian Tabrizi kofta include yellow split peas and potatoes, as well as minced meat. File:Kofte Chawal from India.jpg |alt=Sauced meatballs with rice |Kofte chawal from India (vegetarian kofta made with bottle gourd), served with rice File:Mixed grill - Khan el-Khalili - Cairo, Egypt.jpg |Egyptian koftet el hati on a mixed grill platter, served with tehina File:Cuisine arménienne - Sini Kofte (à gauche) et deux Mitchougov Kofte (à droite).jpg |Armenian types of kofte File:Orkh-Oruq.jpg |Orkh, Armenian kofta made with meat and bulgur served in cylindrical shapes File:NargisiKofta.jpg |Nargesi kofta, a popular dish in Lucknow and Karachi File:Mercimekkoftesi.jpg | Mercimek köftesi, Turkish plant-based kofta made with lentils and bulgur ==See also==