🇦🇿 Azerbaijan and 🇬🇪 Georgia · and Georgia
Kufta bozbash
Bozbash with large meatballs of minced lamb or beef and rice, each hiding dried fruit (a sour plum or cherry plum), simmered in the broth with peas or chickpeas and potato.
Origin and history
Kufta-bozbash is the meatball form of bozbash, the Azerbaijani and Georgian lamb and vegetable soup. AzeriFood gives the name as kufta (round) plus bozbash (grey head) in Azeri. Georgia's tourism board lists the same meatball form, kiupta, among the Kakhetian forms of bozbashi.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 45 min
- Hands-on
- 40 min
Ingredients
- 500 g1.1 lb minced lamb or beef, fatty mince holds together best
- 250 g9 oz onion (about 2 medium), finely diced
- 50 g1/4 cup short-grain rice, raw, rinsed
- 4 dried sour plums or cherry plums (alycha), one per meatball; pitted dried apricots or prunes also work
- 100 g1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, then simmered 30 minutes
- 4 large potatoes, peeled, left whole
- 1/2 ripe tomato, peeled and chopped, or 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1.2 l5 cups lamb-bone broth or water, simmered from lamb bones if you have them
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric, or a pinch of saffron steeped in hot water
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- salt, to taste
- 1 tbsp dried mint, to finish
Method
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1. Soak the dried chickpeas overnight, then simmer them in fresh water for about 30 minutes until they are partly cooked; drain.
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2. Mix the mince, diced onion, rice, salt and pepper and knead until the mixture is sticky and holds together.
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3. Divide the mixture into 4 equal portions. Flatten each, press a dried plum into the middle and close the meat around it into a smooth ball about the size of a palm.
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4. Bring the broth to a boil in a wide pot.
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5. Lower in the meatballs, add the whole potatoes and the chickpeas, then reduce to medium-low heat.
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6. Skim the foam that rises so the broth stays clear, and add the turmeric.
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7. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes, then test a potato; if it is still firm, give it 15 minutes more.
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8. Stir in the tomato and simmer for 15 minutes more, until the meatballs are cooked through and the broth has taken colour.
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9. Serve one meatball and one potato per bowl with plenty of broth and chickpeas, sprinkled with dried mint, alongside flatbread and pickles.
Notes
- This is the distinguishing form of bozbash: large meatballs of mince and rice, each with a dried sour plum inside, instead of chunks of meat on the bone. The parent recipe uses meat in chunks and no rice or fruit.
- Georgian cooks know it as kiupta; Georgia's tourism board gives a recipe of lamb or beef meatballs with 2 tbsp of rice, onion, coriander, an egg and cinnamon, boiled with potatoes. You can add an egg and a little cinnamon for the Georgian version.
- AzeriFood's recipe serves one kufta and one potato per portion; the meatball is big enough to be the main course. That page lists turmeric in the ingredients but ginger in the method; turmeric is used here, as in the parent.
- Keep the plum snug inside the ball so the sour, fruity centre surprises the eater; AzeriFood uses cherry plums, and the stone should be removed first.
- The amount of broth is for a thick soup; for a thinner one, use 1.5 l (6 cups). The soup keeps 2 days in the fridge.
Adapted from Azerifood: Kufta-bozbash, Advantour: Azerbaijani soups, and Georgia Travel (Georgian National Tourism Administration): Bozbashi.
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