I love kabobs, who wouldn't love a bunch of meat skewered and grilled with delicious spices?!? My take on kabobs combines the best features of a Persian and Sikh style kabob. I use ground beef, but you can use any type you prefer such as turkey or lamb. I typically serve this with basmati rice, or you can add it to pita bread with some tzatziki sauce.
You can use bamboo skewers, which need to be soaked for at least an hour beforehand so they don't burn on the grill. I prefer to use the metal type which are reusable, sturdy, and actually help cook the meat from the inside.
Here are my recommended tools, which I use all the time and are well made. The first set is a good all around skewer for cuts of meat or for ground meat, and are affordable and easy to clean. The second set is more of a spurge, and are great for an authentic look and feel to your kabob. You can use these for your final presentation as well to impress your guests...they are practically swords! Since these are much wider, they allow you to have more surface area for a flatter kabob, which translates to better charring. They are really long though so make sure it will fit in your grill!
Ingredients:
1 Lb ground beef/lamb/turkey/chicken
2 Metal Skewers (if using bamboo/wooden skewers it will make at least 4-6)
1/2 Tbsp Curry Powder
1/2 Tbsp Salt
1/2 Tbsp Ground Black Pepper
1/3 of a large onion (or 1/4 cup of grated onion)
Lets get cooking
1. Get your grill started on high heat, you can also use a large cast iron grill pan if you do not have access to a grill.
2. Season the 1 pound of ground meat of your choice with the salt, pepper, and curry powder and combine in a bowl and set aside.
3. Using a cheese grater, grate the onion and squeeze any juice out of the onion (preferably in a cheese cloth if you have one, otherwise just squeeze with your hands) and place the grated onion into the meat mixture. Combine well so that all ingredients are thoroughly mixed together.
4. To get the meat onto a skewer, grab a big handful of the meat and form it into a long football shape. Place the skewer through the middle of the meat football so that the meat is at the top of the skewer. Gently squeeze the top of the meat football into a circular shape and press with your fingers to flatten it slightly on the top and bottom, and then work your way down until the meat has been pushed all the way down the skewer and is evenly spread out. This gives you a distinctive pattern like in the picture below. In my kabob, I added some diced jalapeno and sprinkled some curry ranch seasoning I made on top.
You can also just make it a circular shape all the way down and then flatten it all when you are done by pressing gently on it on a flat surface.
5. Once you have the skewers ready to go and the grill is heated up, add them to start cooking. Since these are fairly thin, they cook pretty quickly but you only want to turn it once so you get a really good char and crust on the outside. Cook them about 3-5 minutes on the first side, and then flip and keep for another 2-3 minutes on the other side. If you are using something like turkey or chicken, you will need to lower the temperature to medium low and allow them to cook to 165 degrees on the inside so they don't dry out before the finish cooking.
6. Once they are cooked to your liking, pull them off with tongs (don't forget the skewers are metal and hot), and let them rest for a minute before you pull it off the skewer for serving, or wait for the skewer to cool before you serve it on the skewer.
For the final plating, I placed the kabob over a bed of rice with peas, and some grilled pineapples.
Enjoy!
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