Beef Kababs

My 9 year old loves to experiment with new recipes. Lately she’s been showing a lot of interest in learning how to make meat dishes. Every time we go out to eat at an Indian or Middle-Eastern restaurant she likes to order different kinds of kababs. She really loves those succulent spiced pieces of skewered minced meat (say that sentence really fast 5 times). 😉

So I thought, for her very first meat dish, I’d show her how to make kababs. She wrote down the recipe, we measured out the ingredients, she shaped the kababs, and we grilled them for lunch. I’m happy to say her molding technique is far better than mine was on my first try – those cooking shows we watch together are definitely paying off.

This is how we made it:

1. Place one pound of meat into a mixing bowl. We used beef, but you can use chicken as well. Make sure the meat is completely dry/thawed. I like to ask the butcher to wash the meat before he minces it for me.

2. Grate three tbsp of onion. Squeeze out all the water. Put into meat.

3. Grate 3 cloves of garlic. And 1 tbsp of ginger. Chop 2 tbsp cilantro. Add to meat.

4. Add 1/4 tsp chili powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp cumin powder, 1/2 tsp garam masala powder, and 1 tsp salt to the meat mix. 

5. Stir to blend all the ingredients.

6. Oil the handle of a thin wooden spoon. Take about a 1/3 cup of the meat mix and form the kabab over the oiled handle. Slide the kabab off carefully. Repeat until you finish all the ground meat mixture. Or you could always make them into patties instead.

7. Heat and oil a grill pan. Cook the meat on medium heat for about 4-6 minutes on either side till done. You could also fry these kababs instead. Serve with naan/roti and a yogurt dipping sauce. 

Note : For a more restaurant like taste, you could smoke these kababs!