Çiğ köfte

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Çiğ köfte

Çiğ köfte (pronounced as chigh keufte and meaning literally "raw köfte" in Turkish, also written in one word, as çiğköfte) is a favorite Turkish snack and a specialty of South Eastern (Turkey) region, especially Şanlıurfa.

Bulgur is kneaded with chopped onions and water until it gets soft. Then tomato and pepper paste, spices and very finely ground beef are added. This absolutely fatless raw mincemeat is treated with spices while kneading the mixture, which is said to "cook" the meat. Lastly, green onions, fresh mint and parsley are mixed in.

One spice that is associated with çiğ köfte, and with Şanlıurfa as a whole, is "isot", a very dark, almost blackish paprika, prepared in a special manner, and which is considered as indispensable for an authentically local preparation of çiğ köfte (and also of lahmacun). Although, isot is famous as the special dried pepper that is locally produced by farmers of Şanlıurfa, in fact, it is a general word used for pepper in Şanlıurfa.

A favorite way of eating çiğ köfte is by sandwiching it within a lettuce leaf, accompanied with good quantities of ayran to counter-act the burning sensation that this very spicy food will give.

For vegetarians, two no-meat versions also exist. In Siverek district of Şanlıurfa, scrambled eggs are used instead of meat. And kısır, a specialty of Gaziantep region^{[citation needed]}, although it resembles çiğ köfte in its conception, with more numerous and exclusively non-animal ingredients, is a dish that stands on its own.

According to lore, çiğ köfte was invented in Urfa at the time of prophet Ibrahim (Abraham). When Nemrud (Nimrod) collected all firewood in Urfa in order to build a monumental execution pyre, the wife of a hunter had to prepare venison raw. She mixed the meat with bulgur, herbs and spices and crushed the mixture with stone implements until it was palatable.