Kafta kebab

Name: Kafta kebab
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 37 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Ingredients: 500 g Minced beef (15-20% fat); 300 g Minced lamb; 1 Yellow onion, grated and squeezed dry; 40 g Flat-leaf parsley, very finely chopped; 3 Garlic cloves, grated; 2 tsp Baharat (seven spice); 1 tsp Ground cumin; 0.5 tsp Ground cinnamon; 1 tsp Sumac; 2 tsp Fine sea salt; 1 tsp Freshly ground black pepper; 4 Flatbreads and pickles, to serve

Hand-mixed minced beef and lamb with grated onion, parsley and seven spice, moulded onto flat skewers and grilled over high heat. Cheap, fast, and the single best way to feed a crowd from a barbecue.

37 min totalmediumeasy

Instructions

1
Grate the onion, then squeeze it hard in a clean cloth until almost dry. Wet onion is why home kafta slides off the skewer.
2
Combine the beef, lamb, onion, parsley, garlic, baharat, cumin, cinnamon, sumac, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
3
Knead the mixture with your hands for a full 4-5 minutes, until it turns slightly sticky and tacky. This protein bind is what holds the kebab together on the grill.
4
Cover and chill the mixture for at least 1 hour — cold, rested meat moulds far more easily.
5
Wet your hands, take a handful of mixture and press it around a flat metal skewer into a sausage about 2 cm thick, squeezing ridges along the length with your fingers.
6
Heat the grill to high. Lay the skewers on and leave them alone for 4 minutes — they release from the grate only once a crust has formed.
7
Turn and grill another 4-5 minutes until browned all over and just cooked through; kafta dries out fast past this point.
8
Rest 3 minutes, then slide off the skewers onto warm flatbread with pickles, tomato and a scatter of sumac.

Notes

The beef-lamb blend matters: all beef is lean and dull, all lamb is heavy. If your mince is very lean, add 50 g of finely chopped lamb fat. No skewers? Shape into flat patties and cook them exactly the same way in a hot pan.

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