A feast of kababs!
The hubby and I are the type of people who would drive hours just to eat a certain dish we crave. Years ago, this was Persian kabobs and we would make a day trip up to Tyson’s Corner in the D.C. area to dine in a restaurant called Shamshiry. Then, one Christmas, his sister gave us a cookbook called The New Food of Life by Najmieh Batmanglij and it was then that we decided to try our hand with the kabab recipes in the book.
We never went back to Shamshiry.
This preparation is the specialty of the “Hungry” Hubby. It’s kind of a signature dish of our household. It’s useless sometimes to prepare something else other than kababs for our guests because the look of disappointment is so evident if the grilled meat dish is not on our menu.
I really wanted to have a picture of a plated kabab dish complete with step-by-step instructions for preparing the rice. Believe it or not, there were two professional photographers at our dinner party - my brother and a family friend. But alas, the aroma of the sizzling meat was too great that the vultures could not wait to descend.
Fillet Kabab
Kabab-e barg
2 lb tenderloin
1 large onion; peeled,sliced
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp black pepper; ground
2 tbs lime juice (fresh)
2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp saffron; ground,dissolved in water
1/4 cup yoghurt
8 roma tomatoes
Basting
2 tbs Butter
2 small lime juice (fresh)
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp black pepper; ground
Cut meat into 3 by 4 by ¼ inch pieces and place in a large glass or Pyrex dish with cover. Add onion, olive oil, pepper, lime juice, salt, saffron water (if desired) and yoghurt to the meat. Mix well. Cover the meat and marinate for at least 24 hours. Turn the meat in the marinade twice during this period.
Thread each piece of meat onto the flat, sword-like skewer, leaving a few inches free on both ends. Spear the tomatoes on separate skewers.
For basting, combine oil, the juice of 2 limes, and salt and pepper in a small saucepan. Keep warm.
When the grill is hot, brush the tomatoes and meat lightly with the baste. Place the tomatoes on the grill first, then place the skewered meat on the grill. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes on each side, turning the skewers frequently. The meat should be seared on the outside, pink and juicy on the inside.
Serve with chelow ( saffron steamed rice) and garnish with tomatoes. Sprinkle sumac powder if desired.
Ground Meat kabab
Kabab-e kubideh
2 lb ground beef; twice ground
2 tsp Salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 large onion; peeled,finely grated
Basting
2 tbs Butter; melted
1/2 tsp lime juice (fresh)
12 flat 1-inch skewers
sumac for garnish
In a warm mixing bowl, combine meat and the rest of the kabob ingredients. Knead with your hands for about 5 minutes to form a paste that will adhere well to cooking skewers. Cover the paste and let stand for 15 minutes at room temperature.
Using damp hands, divide the meat paste into 12 equal lumps about the size of oranges. Roll each into a sausage shape 5 inches long and mold it firmly around a flat, sword-like skewer. Cover and keep on a cool place.
For the baste, melt the butter in a small saucepan and add a pinch of salt and lime juice.
Arrange the skewers on a hot grill, keeping in mind that the ground meat should not touch the grill. After a few seconds, turn the meat gently to help it attach to the skewers and prevent it from falling off.
Grill the meat 3 to 5 minutes on each side, and brush with baste just before removing from the grill. Avoid overcooking it. The meat should be seared on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside.
Slide the meat off the skewer and sprinkle with sumac. Serve with chelow (saffron steamed rice).
Yoghurt-cucumber garnish
Mast-o-kiar
1 pint of yoghurt
salt pepper to taste
1 tbs dried mint
1 tsp dried tarragon
½tsp dried rosemarr
1 cucumber, skinned and diced into small
Crush the dried herbs in your hand and mix together. Add the yoghurt and the cucumber, salt and pepper.
Cooking Notes:
Eating notes. Let me just describe how this is eaten. Make a mound of rice on your plate and carve a well in the middle. Drop a piece of butter, cover with the rice and let the butter melt. Sprinkle with sumac if desired. Traditionally a raw egg yolk is thrown into the mix but we stopped doing this. Get a piece of grilled tomato, sprinkle with sumac, salt and pepper and mash it down a little. Add the kabobs and enjoy!
We make our rice with a crispy crust called tah-dig. The crust is great to enjoy with the yogurt mixture.
The Fillet kabob is pretty straightforward to make like any shish-kebab. The book suggests sirloin but we find that tenderloin from Costco tastes the best. There is no need to get prime cuts for this because it is going to be marinated.
The ground meat kabab on the other hand has a significant degree of difficulty to prepare. This is my favorite kabab. Use ground meat that has fat in it – don’t even think of using those 97% fat -free type, 80% is pretty good. If you master the method of preparing this you shall be revered by your friends as a kabab master. The meat should not be too cold when you mount them on the skewer. Have a bowl of water beside you to dip your hands in to prevent the meat from sticking them. Gently shape the ball of ground meat along the length of the skewer. Make sure that it is spread evenly so it will cook properly. As if skewering this is not hard enough, grilling it is just as tricky. This is normally done with no grates on the grill. But we chose a grill that will let us lay the skewer without the meat touching the grate too much. Timing in turning the ground meat kabob is essential because you do not want one side to cook too much that it will detach from the skewer. We do get some casualties from time to time , but our guests love this fallen kababs as impromptu appetizers.
With the weather getting warmer, I can’t wait for the next round of kababs!
* the sword-like skewers are available in Iranian/Persian stores.
Recent Comments