We love lamb and we search out restaurants with delicious dishes made with lamb. The lamb kofta at Elektra might be our favorite. What gives it that delicious flavor? Can we reproduce it at home?
— Suzanne Newman, Atlanta
Lamb kofta has been on the Elektra menu since the restaurant opened in July 2024.
“It’s a dish that really embodies what we do at Elektra — serving bold Mediterranean flavors rooted in tradition,” wrote executive chef Jonathan McDowell when he provided the recipe. “I created it as a nod to the classic street food, especially skewered meats, I grew up loving in Los Angeles, raised in a Lebanese-Egyptian family.
“When we were creating the menu, we tasted lamb from multiple vendors and ultimately selected halal lamb shoulder because it had the ideal balance of flavor and marbling. It gives the kofta richness without being too fatty and holds up beautifully on the grill.”
A serving of lamb kofta at Elektra is one skewer, accompanied with grilled pepper and tomato, sumac onions and toum, a Lebanese garlic sauce. In the photo, the lamb kofta is shown on the left with a skewer of honey harissa chicken and an octopus skewer. The octopus is no longer on the menu.
The restaurant prepares batches of enough meat for 60 skewers at a time, seasoning cuts of brisket and lamb shoulder, then passing them through both a coarse and fine meat grinder. We’ve adapted the recipe using ground meats. To duplicate the flavor, ask your neighborhood butcher shop to grind brisket and lamb shoulder for you, or you can use ground beef and lamb from the grocery store. The key to success in shaping the mixture onto skewers is to work the seasoned ground meat with your hands so that it’s completely homogenous and very sticky.
At Elektra, the skewers are cooked on a grill at 550 degrees. At home, you can broil the skewers, or cook them on a very hot grill as we recommend here. Presoaking the bamboo skewers is not necessary. While cooking the skewers, you can grill peppers and tomatoes to copy the presentation at Elektra.
The restaurant kitchen uses the hot version of Oncu pepper paste, a Turkish-style blend made primarily from sun-dried red peppers. It’s available online and at the Buford Highway Farmers Market or other markets carrying Middle Eastern groceries where you will also find Aleppo pepper, sumac and harissa.
Elektra’s Lamb Kofta
- 1 cup minced yellow onion
- 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons hot pepper paste
- 1 heaping tablespoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon Aleppo pepper
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped garlic
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sumac
- 1 1/2 teaspoons harissa
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3/4 pound ground beef brisket
- 3/4 pound ground lamb shoulder
- Vegetable oil, for oiling grill grates
- Bamboo skewers
- In a large bowl, combine onion, hot pepper paste, salt, Aleppo pepper, parsley, garlic, sumac, harissa, cumin, cinnamon and black pepper and use your hands to mix thoroughly.
- Add ground beef and ground lamb and, with your hands, mix seasonings into meat until seasonings are incorporated and mixture is sticky. Transfer to a bowl or food-grade plastic bag. If using a bowl, cover the mixture. Refrigerate at least 1 hour, up to overnight.
- When ready to cook, heat grill to 400 degrees. Use paper towels to rub oil on grill grates.
- Remove meat from refrigerator and, using wet hands, divide into eight balls. Keeping hands wet, form each ball into an even cylinder around a skewer, keeping skewer ends free of meat. Press firmly so meat adheres to skewer and set skewers on a tray or baking sheet until all skewers have been made.
- Place skewers directly on hot grill and cook, rotating as needed, until meat reaches 170 degrees, 7–10 minutes. Remove from grill and serve immediately.
Makes 8 skewers.
Per skewer: 245 calories (percent of calories from fat, 68), 15 grams protein, 4 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram total sugars, 1 gram fiber, 18 grams total fat (8 grams saturated), 60 milligrams cholesterol, 538 milligrams sodium.
From the menu of … Elektra at Forth Hotel, 800 Rankin St. NE, Atlanta; 470-470-8022, elektraatlanta.com.
Is there a recipe from a metro Atlanta restaurant you’d like to make at home? Tell us and we’ll try to get it. We’ll also test it and adapt it for the home kitchen. Because of volume, we can’t answer all inquiries. Send your request, your address and phone number to fromthemenu@gmail.com and put “From the menu of” and the name of the restaurant in the subject line.
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