Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Seekh Kebab

In my past life, I was a Knowledge Manager and a disorganized writer. In this life, I am a stay-at-home wife who is dabbling with painting, more organized writing, home décor and also documenting food and cooking.

I have my off days too. I hope you will indulge me while I take a culinary detour for the day and share with you a not-so-good-looking-seekh-kebab.

I did work hard on it, you know. But my inexperience on the grill led me to this seekh kebab hara-kiri. But for better or worse, I know you will remain my true reader. I promise I will make it up to you. Sooner if not later.

Ingredients for Seekh Kebab are:

500 grams mince meat (you can use beef/lamb/goat/chicken, no need for lean meat though)
1 egg
1 medium red onion, crispy fried
4-5 fat cloves of garlic
1 inch knob of ginger grated
Handful of green chilies
Handful of fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon red chili powder
Half teaspoon black pepper powder
One and half teaspoon garam masala powder
2 teaspoons desi ghee
Salt
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For the garnish:

1 medium red onion, finely sliced
Slices of lemon / lime
Crushed dry mint leaves mixed with Chaat Masala
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In a blender, mix together the meat, fried onions, garlic, ginger, green chilies and coriander.
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Transfer the mixture into a glass bowl and add one egg, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili and pepper powder, garam masala powder, and desi ghee.
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Pound well till all the ingredients are mixed well. Leave for 30 minutes. Add salt and give it one last mix. I don’t add salt to my kebab mixture, as it releases moisture which makes my seekh kebab mixture soggy.

Heat oven / grill to the maximum. I use metal skewers for seekh kebabs. But if you don’t have them, use bamboo ones but soak them in water for 20 minutes before you use them.

IMG_0125 Make your hands slick with some vegetable oil and rub them on the skewers. Weave the meat mixture on the skewers to make thin sausage-like shapes on the skewers.

If your meat mixture is difficult for you to handle, add some bread crumbs to it.

IMG_0127 Place the skewers on the grill and brush with ghee or oil. Traditionally Seekh Kebabs are made in the Tandoor or Charcoal Grill. But I have barbecued them today.
IMG_0128 IMG_0130 IMG_0131It usually takes about 4-5 minutes to cook the meat. Turn midway to get even color and cooking on the kebabs.

IMG_0135 Drizzle some lemon juice on the Seekh Kebabs and sprinkle the kebab masala of dry mint leaves and chaat masala. Serve with onion rings and coriander chutney

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Seekh Kebabs, which are better looking than mine are served as appetizers. But they are great to go with your daal-roti dinner too!
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7 comments:

Jayanthy Kumaran said...

Wow...wat a elaborate and delicious post...loved your version ...Awesome recipe dear..

Kalyan Karmakar said...

hey great to see the meat back in preeoccupied :)

Khan Chacha would be proud of these kebabs

theconservativefoodie said...

What matters is the taste, a little charred - but who cares ! Little too hot down here for us to BBQ/Grill recipes, but we will wait our turn !

GB said...

they look great ! what a nice way to punch up dal -roti!
:)

PreeOccupied said...

Now this is what I call loyalty! All my favorite people showing solidarity to an otherwise bad-looking Seekh Kebab. But who's complaining. Not me. ;-)

Soma said...

onek din pore elam. onek din pore bari firlam and have started cooking again. Can u say these are calling my name? OOoof that smoky kabab, dekhei haatchani dichey.

Soma(www.ecurry.com)

Kalyan Karmakar said...

I can hear the sheekhs singing 'ham kaale hain to kya hua...'