Turkish Meatballs & Yogurt Sauce (Köfte)

The Turkish name for these, Köfte, pronounced sort of, "kuftah," simply means "meatball." Ingredients can vary somewhat from place to place in Turkey, and beef is not uncommonly used. You can increase the amount of chili pepper or cayenne for more heat, but the amount I show below should not scorch anyone's mouth. Notice there is no egg, although I saw a few recipes which included egg, but they "seemed" to be from non Turkish cooks. The yogurt sauce can be made well in advance, even the day before, and it should be chilled for at least a couple of hours, in any case. The time will allow the flavors to blend, so make the yogurt sauce first.  

Ingredient (about 10 meatballs):

1 pound ground lamb
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup breadcrumbs (Panko are great, they're coarse)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground sumac (optional) *
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon hot chili pepper flakes or ground cayenne pepper
1/4 cup chopped mint leaves

The Yogurt Sauce: 
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped mint (can be fresh or dried)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
pinch of freshly ground black pepper

For the yogurt:
Combine the ingredients in a bowl, cover and chill for a minimum of a couple of hours, preferably longer.

For the meatballs:
Preheat oven to 350 (F). Line a baking sheet or shallow pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil (this will make clean up much easier). In a bowl, add all the ingredients and mix just until all are mixed in. Roll heaping tablespoons of the mixture into meatballs. Allow a little space between the meatballs. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes, by which time the outsides should be a "little crispy," but the insides will be tender. Just to be safe, as all ovens are not the same, check the meatballs after 35 minutes, then judge how much longer they may need for the level of "crispness" you like. Leaving them unchecked for the entire 45 minutes may dry them out. I used the entire 45 minutes and they were wonderful, but I did check them at 35 minutes, then again at 40 minutes. 

* This type of sumac is not the poisonous variety we think of in the United States and Canada, although it is from the same overall plant family. This spice, from the plant's berries, is deep red in color, with a tangy, sort of lemony flavor; in fact, if you don't have it, or don't have access to buy it easily, you can just leave it out, or I found some recipes mention substituting a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, or a teaspoon of grated lemon peel. I had some sumac, so I used it. 

WORD HISTORY:
Turk/Turkey-The Turks speak what linguists believe is a language unrelated to English, coming from the Turkic language family. There has been disagreement about this family of languages from central Asia, and its ties or non ties to the Altaic languages, also from central Asia. Anyhow, ancient Chinese used the term "tu-kin" for the people living in the area of the Altai Mountains (thus "Altaic" for that language family), but whether "tu-kin" is the ancestor of "Turk," is seemingly an open question. Did these people adopt a variant form for themselves, or did Chinese get the term from these people? Whatever the truth, it seems that Greek picked up "Tourkos," perhaps from Persian "turk." ^ Latin picked up the word from Greek as "Turcus," and this passed into French as "Turc." English got the word from French during the 1200s or 1300s. The national name, "Turkey," came into use during the 1300s, from Latin "Turchia." ^^

^ Persian is an Indo European language related to English, but much, much further down the family tree.

^^  The English word for the bird we Americans think of for Thanksgiving, came from a shortening of "Turkey hen/Turkey cock," as there was a similar bird brought into Europe by the Portuguese, imported by way of Turkey; thus the name came to be applied to the bird. As for people called a "turkey," ahh.... I'll leave that alone!