Basselah

Yesterday I tapped into my inner Armenian and made my cousin Jackie's Basselah.  It's basically a tomato-based meatball (kufta) soup with garbanzo beans.  However, it's different from Italian-tasting soups because it has two unique ingredients: lemon juice and mint.  Also, you won't find kufta better than the ones in basselah: when you bite into them, liquid butter pours into your mouth.  Oh yeah.  My version turned out pretty darn tasty, especially since both kids were literally clinging to my legs while I was frantically making kufta and keeping an eye on the ones cooking.  However, there was one major problem with the kufta: most of them did not have the delicious pool of warm butter inside because the butter had seeped into the shell.  I think my meatball batter was too wet or something.  I need to call Jackie to troubleshoot.  In any case, they were still so yummy.  Here's my version of the recipe (I still approximated most everything):

Broth
2 cans garbanzo beans
2 (14.8 oz.) cans diced tomatoes
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1-2 onions, diced
1 32-oz. box chicken broth
2 (14.8 oz.) cans water, or more
juice from 2 lemons
salt and pepper
2 T. dry mint
2-3 T. butter

Kufta
3 lb. extra lean ground beef (important that it's lean since you have a load of fat right in the center of the meatball) :)
2-3 cups ice water
1 T. salt
1.5 cups fine bulgur wheat
1/2 onion, minced
salt and pepper
1 cube butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes, chilled

Make the broth by sautéing the onions and basically adding everything else (there were no directions in Jackie's recipe so that's just kind of what I did).  Before you add the mint, sauté it in the butter to soften a bit.  Once the broth is boiling, add the kufta.  I did them in batches.  You don't want them to get too mushy or they will decompose and the butter will come out (maybe that was my problem).

For the kufta: Grind the meat again in your processor so it's extra fine.  Add all the ingredients except butter.  Make balls and put a little cube of chilled butter in the center of each one.  It will melt when they cook.  Mmm...I also had a little bit of butter remaining and just added it to the broth.  Can you tell I love butter?

If you have leftovers, store the broth and meatballs separately so the meatballs don't get mushy.  Even my kids loved this one.  Enjoy!