Cross-border kebabs

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A chilly winter’s evening is made all the more enjoyable with everyone gathering around a barbecue and savouring hot kebabs straight off the grill.

We often, however, face the problem of ensuring that the kebabs we make at home taste like the ones we eat at restaurants. A little attention to detail can take care of that.
This week we look at a couple of kebabs that have originated across our borders — in this case Afghanistan and Morocco — but are extremely popular in India.

Chapli Kebab
The word ‘chapli’ means like a chapppal or slipper and denotes the shape and size of the kebabs. These days, however, the portions have come down to much more manageable sizes. Two cities famous for Chapli Kebabs are Peshawar in Pakistan and Rampur in India’s Uttar Pradesh.

Ingredients
900 gm mutton mince
150 gm mutton fat (ask the butcher to mix the mince and fat)
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
½ tsp black pepper powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp garam masala
4-5 green chillies, coarsely chopped
1 medium onion, grated
1 bunch of coriander leaves, chopped
½ cup besan (gram flour)
Salt (to taste)
½ cup oil for shallow frying

Method
In a food processor, add the mince, fat and blitz to a paste. Remove and transfer to a large bowl.
Add the ginger-garlic paste, the grated onion, the green chillies, all the dry masala, salt, besan and coriander leaves and mix thoroughly with your hands. Add a couple of spoons of water if the mixture becomes too dry.
With wet hands make small balls — around 1 ½ times a TT ball — of the mince mixture.
Heat the oil in a large, shallow frying pan. Once the oil is hot, take a ball of mince and flatten it with your palms — they should be quite thin — and place it in the middle of the frying pan for around three seconds before shifting it to the side. Repeat the process till the frying pan is full. Fry for around 5 minutes while spooning over oil from the centre of the pan over the kebabs.
Remove and repeat the process with the rest of the mixture.
Serve hot with onion rings and lime wedges.