Kufta bozbash

Ingredients

• Lamb — minced500 g
• Lamb on the bone — for the broth400 g
• Rice3 tbsp
• Chickpeas — soaked overnight150 g
• Potatoes4
• Onion2
• Dried sour plums4
• Dried apricots4
• Dried mint1 tsp
• Turmeric1 tsp
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Cover the bone-in lamb with cold water, bring it up and skim. Add the chickpeas and simmer for an hour.

   65 min

2. 2

   Work a grated onion, the rice, salt and pepper into the mince and knead for five minutes, until the mass pulls back at your hand.

   8 min

3. 3

   Divide the mince into four. Hide a plum and an apricot in each and shape a tight ball with no cracks.

   10 min

4. 4

   Lower the kufta into the barely simmering broth and cook thirty minutes without stirring. For the first five minutes do not touch it at all.

   32 min

5. 5

   Add the potatoes whole and the turmeric and cook twenty minutes more, until the potatoes are tender.

   22 min

6. 6

   Into each bowl goes one kufta, one potato and some chickpeas; ladle over the broth and crumble dried mint on top.

   5 min

About the dish

The kufta here is the size of a fist and one goes into each bowl. The mince is worked until tacky, or the ball breaks apart in the water before it sets.

A sour plum or prune is hidden inside: as it cooks it releases acid from within, and the meat ends up seasoned without any marinade.

The broth has to stay clear. It is never boiled hard, and the scum is lifted off in the first ten minutes — a cloudy bozbash reads as haste in Azerbaijan.

Worth knowing

• — The mince must be cold. Warm fat softens the mass and the ball loses its shape in the pot.
• — Unsoaked chickpeas will not soften in an hour, and you cannot simply give them longer: by then the meat has given everything to the broth.
• — The sourness has to come from dried fruit. A fresh plum disintegrates and clouds the broth.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

560 kcal

Protein

34 g

Fat

26 g

Carbs

46 g

More from Azerbaijan

• Shah plov — Pilaf baked in a crown of lavash. The crust holds its shape and is cut in wedges like a pie.