Meatball Soup and Where Babies Come From

Azerbaijani Soup

KUFTE BOZBASH
(Meatball Soup)

INGREDIENTS

1 medium onion
1 pound ground lamb. beef, or combination
2½ tablespoons rice
2 teaspoons mint
¼ teaspoon pepper (¼ more teaspoon later)
1 teaspoon salt (½ more teaspoon later)
½ teaspoon savory
¼ teaspoon turmeric
4 dried sour plums
2 teaspoons tomato paste
5 cups beef stock
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt
4 medium potatoes
1 cup canned, drained chickpeas

Makes 4 bowls. Takes 1 hour.

PREPARATION

Mince onion. Add onion, lamb, rice, mint, ¼ teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, savory, and turmeric to large mixing bowl. Use hands to form 4 large meatballs. Remove pits from dried sour plums. Push a plum into the center of each meatball. Smooth over poked hole.

Add tomato paste, beef stock, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and ½ teaspoon salt to pot. Bring to boil using high heat. While liquid comes to boil, peel potatoes. Cut potatoes in half. Gently add meatballs to pot. Reduce head to low heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Do not stir; this can break the meatballs apart. Add potato halves. Simmer on low for 30 minutes or until potato is tender. Add chickpeas. Simmer on low for 5 minutes. Ladle soup into bowls. Each bowl gets 1 meatball and 2 potato halves.

TIDBITS

1) Drive-in movie theaters are popular in Azerbaijan. Horror movies are the preferred films. However, the snack shacks over there serve only meatball soup instead of popcorn.

2) Movie goers get startled when the monster jumps out of the closet. They spill hot meatball soup on their clothes. Really hot meatball soup. They take off their clothes. Couples look at each other and decide the movie is stupid and find something better to do. Young Azerbaijani males constantly take their dates to the drive in. Azerbaijan’s population is exploding. Indeed, the world’s population has doubled since I was young, all fueled by the surging meatball-soup-drive-in craze.

Chef Paul