Kabab Koobideh

Servings : Serves 2-3

These kebabs are similar to the Seekh kababs, moist and delicious. They go well with naans, raita and salad or with rice as shown in this link: Chelo Kebab Koobideh

Ingredients

  • 500gm beef mince
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 small bunch coriander (leaves with stems)
  • 2 green chillies
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tsp. garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp. sumac powder (optional)
  • 1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. black pepper powder

Instructions

1. I prefer special kebab mince which has 80% meat and 20% fat, this keeps the kebabs moist and juicy as opposed to using very lean meat that ends up turning out too dry or hard after grilling.

2.  When I buy kebab mince, I request my butcher to grind the mince 3 times, making it super soft and smooth. You can either do this yourself at home or simply ask for it to be grinded for you when you buy your mince.

3.  The kebab mince is normally not washed, the meat is washed prior to grinding. Any extra moisture or water will result in the kebabs falling off the skewer during grilling. So try to make sure you do not add any water to it.

4.  Try and buy the mince the day before you need to use it (to allow for marinating time). Freezing any mince causes it to release extra moisture as it thaws, and as explained in TIP 3 above, we don’t want that extra water. 🙂

Blend or process the onion, coriander and green chillies to form a paste (try to use little or no water for this).

Sieve and drain away any excess moisture from the paste until it is COMPLETELY dry.

Add this along with all the other ingredients into your mince and then mix well, kneading the mixture for about 5 minutes to make sure it’s smooth and soft.

Cover and refrigerate the mince overnight.

When ready to use, turn on your bbq grill. Shape the koobideh on long flat metal skewers (do not grease the skewers). I made mine 12″ long. They normally shrink by a couple of inches as they cook. Got 6 super-large kababs out of the 500gm of mince.

Once all are shaped, place them on the grill and keep turning them often to make sure they do not fall. If they cook too fast on one side and the other side is still raw, they will fall into the fire, so try and keep turning them often until both sides are solid then you can continue cooking them until the kebabs are nice and brown on both sides.

Once done, remove the kebabs from the skewers (with the help of pieces of naan so you don’t burn yourself) and store between the naans to preserve the juices that will drip from.

They can be made in the oven too, just shape them smaller and grill/broil them for about 4-5 minutes per side or until done. The water that gets released when broiling/grilling in the oven can be drizzled over the rice if you are serving these with rice.

Enjoy! 🙂

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