Kabab koobideh recipe

Persian ground lamb kebab that only works with 20% fat, onion squeezed bone-dry and wide flat metal skewers the meat can grip.

3 hours and 15 minuteshard8 ingredients

Ingredients

• 800 g ground lamb with 20% fat
• 160 g onion
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 pinch saffron
• 30 g butter
• 2 tsp sumac
• 6 wide flat metal skewers

How to make Kabab koobideh

1. Grate 160 g of onion on the fine side of a box grater, salt it and leave it 30 minutes, then wring it out in a cloth. Almost no liquid should remain: wet onion is why kebabs slide off.
2. Ask the butcher for lamb ground with 20% fat from the flank or rib, not tail fat, which is too strong here.
3. Knead 160 g of that lamb with the squeezed onion, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of black pepper for 10 to 15 minutes, until the mass turns pale, sticky and stringy.
4. Cover and chill at least 2 hours, overnight if you can. This step, not the grill, is what makes the meat hold.
5. Dip your hands in cold salted water and press about 130 g of meat along each wide flat metal skewer, roughly 2.5 cm wide, then pinch ridges every 3 cm. Round or bamboo skewers will not hold it.
6. Get a charcoal grill to high, glowing heat with no flame, and set the skewers on the rails so the meat never touches the grate.
7. Grill 3 to 4 minutes per side, turning constantly, until the surface bubbles with juice and the meat is just cooked through.
8. Brush with butter melted with a pinch of bloomed saffron, slide the kebabs off onto flatbread, dust with 2 teaspoons of sumac and serve with rice and grilled tomato.

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