Seekh Kebab

Seekh Kebab: Step by Step

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1. Squeeze the grated onion in a cloth until it is genuinely dry — its water is the main reason kebabs fall apart.

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2. Put the mince, chopped fat, onion, ginger-garlic paste, chillies, papaya paste, gram flour, herbs, spices, salt and pepper in a bowl.

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3. Knead hard with your hands for 6 to 8 minutes, pressing and folding, until the mixture is smooth, sticky and holds together in a single mass.

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4. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour, or up to 4.

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5. Oil your hands and flat metal skewers. Take a handful of mixture and press it around a skewer, working from the middle outwards into a sausage about 20 cm long and 3 cm thick.

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6. Squeeze gently along its length to create shallow ridges, which help it grip the skewer.

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7. Chill the loaded skewers 20 minutes.

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8. Cook over hot coals or under a very hot grill for 4 minutes, then turn and cook 4 minutes more, basting once with oil or butter, until charred outside and just cooked through.

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9. Rest 3 minutes, slide off the skewers, and serve with naan (optional), chutney, onion and lemon.

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Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Ingredient substitutions.

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Things to Watch For

1. Knead until it is one sticky mass. Stirring will not do it.
2. Squeeze the onion completely dry.
3. Flat skewers and cold mixture. Round skewers let it spin and drop.

Changing the Recipe

• Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the green chillies. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
• If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

The Short Version

Minced lamb slides off a skewer unless the mixture is worked until the proteins bind, so it is kneaded rather than stirred and then chilled hard. Raw papaya paste is the traditional tenderiser; it contains papain, which is powerful enough that thirty minutes is plenty and two hours turns the meat to mush.

To Go With It

Mint and coriander chutney · Naan and sliced onion · A cold lassi

Leftovers

The raw mixture keeps 2 days refrigerated. Shaped skewers freeze 2 months.

Quick Answers

Nutrition per Serving

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: an ingredient listed without an amount is not counted, so the figures run low; part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. How the figures are worked out.

Gluten-free when served without the naan.

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