DAY 5 - IRANIAN CHELOW KEBAB WITH RICE
Hey People of the interwebs!
It is your favourite culinary creative/ football sensei Louie :)
So this days fixtures consisted of Germany vs Portugal (work meant I only got to see the last 10 minutes :( ) USA vs Ghana (worth staying up for and feeling tired today for) and the snooze fest that turned out to be Nigeria vs Iran.
However this blog is not just about the quality of football, otherwise this would be Germany's day (coming soon!) but it is about the celebration of diversity of world cuisine.
4-0 to the Germans proved irritating as I had to sit next to a very excitable German (Isabel) signing the national anthem seemingly on repeat. However big shout out to Muller who go the cups first hat-trick. Nothing to be sneezed at. USA put a very spirited performance in against Ghana and got their rewards with a great header from the big centre back in the 85th minute. It is what little boys dreams are made of all the world over, coming on as a substitute and winning a match for your country. The less on Nigeria vs Iran the better (-.-)
So we took a long hard look at this day and I chose Iranian food. The reason is because I love middle eastern food and I had seen a few weeks earlier on Sunday Brunch (A staple in the Clifford/Seip perch) an Iranian chef who made some of the most delicious looking grub I had seen in a long while.
Obviously in my head I thought I can cook that, after a long day of work and cycling, not a problem. Turns out you have to spin a few plates and once during this dish and do some prep the day before. *which I didn't realise and thus not do. Prep the Kebab meat the day before and refrigerate.
So to start you will need:
2 cups of Basmati Rice
4 tbsp of natural plain yoghurt
1 tsp of crushed saffron soaked in 1 tbsp of water
3 tbsp of oil
1 tbsp of salt
Sumac that is optional
some cubes of butter out of the fridge
To cook the rice:
1) Rinse then drain then soak the rice in a bowl of cold water for 30 minutes
2) Bring a big bowl of water to the boil, add salt and then add the rice
3) Cook for 8-10 minutes
4) Drain the water from the pot and put the rice back in said pot
5) Add the yoghurt, oil and saffron and mix it in lightly
6) Cover the pot with a lid or large plate and place on a very low heat to steam for 15 mins
To start the kebab you will need:
500g of Lamb or Beef mince
1 Medium onion
1 small bunch of coriander
2 green chillies
1 beaten egg
1 tsp of garlic paste
1 tbsp of sumac powder which is optional
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of ground black pepper
To cook the kebab:
At this point if you have a food processor you will be at an advantage. Unfortunately I did not have one and spent a bit of time chopping things tiny.
1) Blend the onion, coriander and chillies into a paste
2) Sieve and drain away all excess moisture until the paste is as dry as possible
3) Add the pepper, salt, tumeric, garlic and egg to the mince.
4) Add your paste to the mince
5) Mix well and knead the mixture for 5 minutes until it is completely blended and smooth
6) Cover the herby mince and put in the fridge overnight
7) The next day ideally form your mince around skewers around 6 inches long. Strange sausage shapes will do if you don't have any metal skewers like we didn't!
8) Put the grill on as hot as it will go and cook them on each side for 4 - 5 minutes (put some tomatoes in there as well for some extra texture and flavour)
Serve your kebab, rice and tomato on a nice fanciful plate and then commence devouring process :)
P.S. Sorry for the lack of photo's I was kind of on autopilot making this dish due to tiredness!
Ciao, Louie x
0 comments:
Post a Comment