Kofta

Kofta is a family of meatball or meatloaf dishes found in South Asian, Central Asian, Balkan, Middle Eastern, North African, and South Caucasian cuisines. In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of minced meat—usually beef, chicken, lamb or mutton, camel, seldom pork, or a mixture—mixed with spices and sometimes other ingredients. The earliest known recipes are found in early Arab cookbooks and call for ground lamb.

There are many national and regional variations. There are also vegetable and uncooked versions. Shapes vary and include balls, patties, and cylinders. Sizes typically vary from that of a golf ball to that of an orange.

In English, kofta is a loanword borrowed from the Hindi-Urdu कोफ़्ता / کوفتہ and Persian کوفته 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. In other languages, similar foods are called croquettes, dumplings, meatballs, rissoles, and turnovers.

The ancient Roman cookbook Apicius included many meatball-type recipes.

The first appearance of recipes for kofta are in the earliest Arab cookbooks. The earliest recipes are for large ground lamb meatballs triple-glazed in a mixture of saffron and egg yolk. This glazing method spread to the West, where it is referred to as "gilding" or "endoring". Koftas moved to India; according to Alan Davidson, Nargisi kofta was served at the Mughal court.

Koftas are found from the Indian subcontinent through Central Asia, the Middle East, the Balkans, and northern Africa. Koftas are found in the traditional cuisines of Armenia, Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Turkey. Kofta is also a popular dish among 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.

The basic ingredient of koftas is usually meat, but they are known for their versatility. There are many different ways to prepare it, like frying, baking, steaming, boiling, or grilling. In traditional preparation methods, kofta is kneaded with fine bulgur and meat, and in some Middle Eastern countries it is served with raw meat in the kneaded form.

Often added into the kofta mixture are nuts, cheese, or eggs. Koftas come in a broad range of shapes and sizes, from oval-shaped egg-sized balls to flatly carved rhombuses in trays, or tennis-ball-sized koftas.