One Recipe, Two Cultures Meet: Kafta

Kafta is ground beef in Arabic. It also refers to a Palestinian dish that is made with ground beef, potatoes, and either tomato sauce or tahini sauce. Back in the day, it was hard to get ingredients and tahini wasn't something easily carried or kept for a long time. My father was always an innovative man so he made kafta from what he had here in the Pacific. He used kangkong (water spinach) which grows abundantly and wildly here in Saipan and combined it with ground beef and topped it with fried potatoes. We would eat it with pita or rice and it was so satisfying, nutritional, and delicious. Below is the recipe for his version of kafta.

Kangkong (water spinach)

Ingredients:

2- 3 medium sized potatoes, sliced into circles

1 1/2 pounds of kangkong, chopped (water spinach)

1 pound lean ground beef

1/2 an onion, diced

3 - 4 cloves of garlic, minced

Salt

Black pepper

Process:

1. Heat up olive oil over medium heat in a pan to fry the potatoes. Once oil is hot enough, begin frying the potatoes until golden brown. Lower heat if potatoes cook too quickly on the outside. Place potatoes on a cloth to absorb the excess oil and put aside for later.

2. In another sauce pan, heat up some olive oil (2 tablespoons) and cook the onions and garlic until translucent. Add the ground beef and season with salt and black pepper.

3. Brown the ground beef then add the kangkong and a small amount of water (1/4 cup of water). Stir frequently as it cooks. Adding water creates somewhat of a sauce.

4. When the kangkong has cooked down, lower the heat then spread the ground beef and kankong around the pan to form a layer. Next, add the potatoes on top making them overlap over each other creating a top layer.

5. Cover the pan and allow the water to cook down a bit. Turn off the heat and the kafta is ready to serve.

This dish can be eaten with rice or with pita bread. For me, it is the most delicious version of kafta. I have tried kafta made with tomato sauce and kafta made with tahini sauce, and they do not compare to my father's version. Below is a picture of the finished dish with freshly baked pita from our family restaurant called Caravan of Food.