meat on stick = happy belly

We hosted supper club last night and cooked a Persian feast!  (Note: The Hub’s family probably would have thought what we made was just a warm up to the feast, because the last Persian dinner I ate at Auntie F’s house consisted of 5 different proteins!!!)  Although we only served 2 proteins last night, I’d like to think we still would have made Auntie F proud.  I made kebabs, because, hey, everyone likes meat on a stick!  Lamb is a little on the gamey/greasy side for me, so I added bison to the mix and it greatly helped to cut the gaminess.  Bison has a wonderful rich, beefy taste.  The Hubs gave this recipe two thumbs, way up!  It was raining sideways last night, so I opted to use the oven instead of hoofing it out to the grill.  This recipe serves 8 people, 2 kebabs per person.

From bottom to top: shirazi salad, mast-o-khiar, Persian saffron rice with tadiq crust, kebabs, khoresht karafs, and naan

Ingredients:

• 1 whole bunch of parsley
• 1/2 cup of chopped mint leaves
• 1/4 cup chopped dill
• 2 shallots
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 lemons
• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 lb ground bison
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• salt & pepper to taste
• olive oil for drizzling
• 3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses (I found mine at a Kurdish store on Nolansville Pike)
• 1 teaspoon stone ground mustard
• 16 skewers (if grilling, soak skewers in water for 30 minutes before using)

DO:

Set your oven to 425.  Throw the parsley, mint, dill, shallot, lemon zest from one lemon, lemon juice from one lemon, and garlic cloves into your food processor.  Pulse until finely minced.  Scrape down the sides a few times with a spatula in-between pulses.  Place the lamb and bison in a large bowl and add the pulsed herb mixture, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 2 four-fingered (thumb + pointer, middle, and ring fingers) pinches of kosher salt, and many cranks of fresh pepper.

Line a baking sheet with foil.  Drizzle baking sheet with olive oil.  (The olive oil will help your kebabs brown up nicely.)  Set aside.  Make sure the kebab skewers are at the ready, as it’s about to get meaty up in here!

Roll up the sleeves and start kneading the meat mixture together for about 5 minutes.  Knead until the lamb/bison is sticky, but holds shape.  Take a small ball of meat and form it around the skewer, rolling it between your hands to lengthen until a good portion of the skewer is covered.  Place on lined baking sheet and drizzle with more olive oil.

line ’em up!

Place kebabs on the second highest rack in your preheated oven and set a timer for 8 minutes.  I turned mine 4 times for a 32 minutes of total cooking time.  While the the kebabs are in the oven, prepare the pomegranate glaze to brush on in-between turnings.  In a small bowl, mix together 3 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses, 1 teaspoon stone ground mustard, and the juice of 1 lemon.  Brush this glaze over the kebabs in-between turnings at 8 minute intervals.  The kebabs will brown up nicely and smell amazing.  We served ours with many bottles of red wine, (blends, cabs, Bordeaux, and Shiraz, to name a few), cucumber water, basmati rice, shirazi salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, thinly sliced onion, olive oil, salt & pepper), most-o-khiar (mix one cup greek yogurt with minced, seeded cucumber, a palmful of dill, 3 chopped mint leaves, 1/2 a zested garlic clove, plus salt), and naan bread (go find your own old Kurdish lady baker!).

“day after” kebabs are even more delicious!