Yeaaaah baby. Early mornin kebab fest.
This is kind of a conglomeration of Lebanese, Iranian and Indian recipes I googled.
I used 1 lb of ground veal mixed with 1 pound of burger.
First, mix spices:
1.5 teaspoon ground allspice
.5 teaspoon cayenne
.5 teaspoon ground green cardamom
(I ground the seeds from about 8 pods in a mortar)
.5 teaspoon ground sumac
.5 teaspoon ground nutmeg
.5 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
.5 tablespoon ground cinnamon
.25 teaspoon ground ginger
.5 cup breadcrumbs
Then the wet:
1 egg
.5 finely diced white onion
3-4 finely diced garlic
Work everything together. You know how most recipes say "Don't overmix"? Well, forget that. Over mix. Make this stuff into a fine paste as you can. Hands and arms sore. Some recipes use a food processor. I use the one I'm born with.
Soaked wood skewers overnight, threaded onions and tomatos, salt and pepper and olive oil.
Form meatball about the size of a lemon, and work it to about 1 inch diameter nice and tight on the stick.
Salt and pepper the outside, then grill covered about 10 minutes on high. It will flare up from the fat. Smoke good! I took mine off at the medium-well to ACK BURNED stage. Med to med-well was the goal.
Serve with saffron basmati on warm flatbread. Naan would be better but I had roti handy, good enough.
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| Don't that purty? |
2 cups rice
2 cups chicken stock
bit of chicken bullion
teaspoon or so saffron
1 teaspoon biryani spice
1 diced onion
onion salt to taste
Traditionally served with tahini sauce, I prefer a crosscultural yogurt based sauce:
1 cup of greek yogurt
.5 cup diced cucumber
chopped mint or dill
chopped onion
1 cloved diced garlic
juice of a lemon or lime
salt to taste
Post eating reflections:
YUM! HOLY cow this is great.
There's so much going on. It's like the best backyard burger ever, with all the fragrance brought with the yogurt and the rice and the oily smoky seasoned meat.
I'll put this up against anybody else's "meatball sandwich". It's more of an overall experience which, all together feels like something special for sure. I've never been to the middle east, but like to think my house smells like a Beirut kitchen right now (a very good thing).
Seems like this was a lot of prep, but this was totally my first time, so next time should go a bit snappier. I'd plan on an hour for everything if you do it right. Also quadruple the veggies. And something sweet would be nice for dessert, like pistachio pudding.
This will bag-freeze up nicely for work lunches sans yogurt sauce.
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