Don’t ever tell me that real, original kebab is cooked only out of lamb! Nonsense! Fortunately, my religion doesn’t make me or other adepts to a strict diet and allows eating any kind of products. So, I’m free to enjoy all the variety of gourmet foods existing in the world.
Actually, there are many variations of the original Turkic kebab in cuisines of nations worldwide and they are named in different languages.
Generally speaking, this meal deals with cut minced meat put on a skewer and grilled.
How to cook Kebab at home.
Of course, the recipe of minced meat is very important. I’ve tried many options and came to the most appropriate one.
Pork 40%
Beef 20%
Lamb 20%
Fat 20%
The meat should be cut in big pieces. If you try to reach completely authentic effect, then you are to pray namaz and cut the meat (excluding pork, of course) with hatchets on a wooden cutting board. Or else you can simply pass the meat through a mincing machine with big discs and well-sharpened knives.
What else we need:
(per 1 kg of minced meat)
Salt — 2%
Black pepper — 8 gr.
Coriander — 8 gr.
Onion — 200 gr.
Fresh parsley and cilantro — middle bunch each
The onion and bunches are finely cut and added to the minced meat together with ground spices. Remember that the minced meat should always stay cold. I would recommend to cut and mix everything rapidly so that the paste temperature doesn’t go upper than +15C, otherwise, the fat starts melting.
The minced meat for this meal should come dense and very sticky. I’d recommend to prepare a mixture in a cooking machine until «stretchable threads» appear. After that, you need to put the cover over the bowl with minced meat and refrigerate it next 6 hours or the whole night so that the mixture is well-saturated with salt and spices.
How to cook kebab
The main task is to form small sausages out of minced meat and put them on skewers. Do not make too big sausages since they may fall off the skewers when heating, due to its own weight. Being an old and experienced charcuterie man, I decided to use a syringe for stuffing with a cap of an appropriate diameter. This way the process turned to be faster and the final product came dense as it should be. You can also make a syringe out of a plastic bottle or a coca-cola can. There are many life-hacks in the net on this point.
It’s possible to grill kebab (authentic option), to cook it using gas-grill (modern option) or else, to grill it over previously preheated frying pan, placing the skewers up on the sides of frying pan (this is my favourite option, though it produces lots of smoke during the process).
What we need is a stable intense heat and not to forget to turn the kebab from one side to another.
Never, never overdry it! The essence of its unique and exquisite taste is in its juicy structure.
What drinks go perfectly with this meal it’s up to you to decide.