What is kebab

Kebabs are various cooked meat dishes, with their origins in Middle Eastern Cuisine. Many variants are popular around the world. Kebabs consist of cut up or ground meat, sometimes with vegetables, and various other accompaniments according to the specific recipe. Although kebabs are typically cooked on a skewer over a fire, some kebab dishes are baked in a pan in an oven or prepared like a stew. The traditional meat for kebabs is most often mutton or lamb, but regional recipes may include beef, chicken, fish, or pork.

Types of Kebab

Most of the counties have their own versions of kebabs, sightly different from others due to the cooking process or the spices they are using.

In India, we have lots of different types of kebabs like Kakori kebab, Bihari kebab, reshmi kebab, paneer kebab, vegetable kebab etc.

But definitely, the most popular kebabs around the world is Turkish kebab. There are also different types of Turkish kebabs. Inspired by the Turkish kebabs, today I made mutton kebab. I used fresh minced mutton along with fats, some middle eastern spices and sumac to make these delicious kebabs. I give the name kofta kebabs as generally kebabs made at home are called kofta kebabs.

Recipe

• Preparation time: 80 min
• Cooking time: 20 min
• Serves: 4
• Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients

• 500g minced Mutton with atleast 20% fats
• 1 medium white or yellow Onion roughly chopped
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1  bunch of Coriander leaves, stems removed
• 2-3 fresh green Chillies
• 1 slice of bread, toasted until browned and soaked in water until fully tender
• 2 tsp Arabic allspice powder(alternately a mixture of coriander, cumin and garam masala powder can be used)
• 1 tsp paprika powder/red chilli powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Cardamom powder
• 1 teaspoon Sumac powder/Mango powder
• 1/4th teaspoon Nutmeg powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Black pepper crush
• Salt to taste
• Little oil to brush the grill

For serving

Any kind of flatbread or bread of your choice, cucumber wedges, tomato wedges, onion wedges, chopped coriander or parsley and Tahini or Hummus.

Procedure

Soak wooden skewers in water for about 30 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from water when you are ready to begin

Toast a piece of sliced bread and soak in water for until it becomes tender. I used 3 small pieces.

In a food processor or mincer, add in roughly chopped onion, garlic, green chillies and coriander leaves or parsley. Mince them well.

Add the minced mutton, bread (be sure to squeeze out the water completely), and the spices. Run the processor until all is well combined forming a sticky homogeneous mixture.

I have whole nutmeg, so grated and added. If you have powder then use 1/4th teaspoon only. Cover and keep aside for 1/2 an hour so that all the flavours well incorporated to the meat.

Line a big dish with cling film and make ready the skewers. I also used some iron skewers along with wooden skewers.

Remove the meat mixture from the food processor after resting time and place in a large bowl. Take a handful portion of the meat mixture and mould it on a skewer.

Repeat the process. For best results, make sure each kofta kebab is about 1 inch in thickness.

Place the kofta kebabs on the lightly oiled, heated grill pan. Grill on medium-high heat for 4-5 minutes on one side, turn over and grill for another 3-4 minutes. You can also grill them in the preheated oven. I don’t have grill option in my oven so used a grill pan.

Serve the kofta kebabs immediately with your favourite bread, tahini/hummus and some cucumber, tomatoes, onions and coriander or parsley.