Cooking Travels

There are two things you should know and three things you should always have if you want to cook Pakistani food.

The first thing you should know is that cooking in Pakistan, is a serious affair and you should do it thinking you have all the time in the world, even if you don’t :). Home cooked food is given the highest priority and serving your guests with ready-made meal is frowned upon here. There is no such thing, in Pakistan as, “grabbing a bite”. Each meal is carefully planned and carefully consumed. Highest importance is given to breakfast and dinner as it is said here, skipping breakfast makes you weak and dull and skipping dinner is inviting old age early.

The three things you should have plentiful are Cumin Seeds (Urdu: Zeera), Garlic/Ginger paste and Mint/Coriander leaves. There is hardly any recipe that does contain at least one of the listed items.

The recipe I have chosen to write about is a famous recipe, common to both Pakistan and Afghanistan and the origin of this dish is Afghanistan (at one time, the northern areas of Pakistan were actually a part of Afghanistan and eventually Persia(Now Iran)). There is a heavy influence of Iranian, Turkish, Afghani, Arabian and Central Asian cuisine on Pakistani cuisine due to our ancestral roots there.

So here is the recipe of the popular dish. Another thing before I list down the ingredients is that these Kebabs can be made from either beef or lamb but my favorite type is beef and I think they taste best when beef is used so I am going to list minced beef as an ingredient. You are most welcome to try with other types of meat and let us know the experience.

Ingredients:

For Chapli Kebabs:

1. 1/2 Kg. finely mined beef
2. 100 grams Corn meal (Do not use Corn Flour as it makes them stiff)
3. 1 medium sized onion, roughly chopped
4. 1 tsp. ginger paste
5. 1 tsp. crushed cumin seeds
6. 1 tsp. crushed dry red chillies
7. 1 tsp. crushed coriander seeds (pay special attention: seeds not leaves)
8. 1 tsp. wild pomegranate seeds (I am not sure if it available easily everywhere, it can be skipped if not available although it gives a nice hint of sour flavor to the taste of the kebabs)
9. 3 green chillies roughly chopped
10. 1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves (this time it is leaves)
11. 1 tsp. lemon juice (vinegar can be used instead of lemon)
12. 2 eggs and 1 tsp. salt
    

For dressing

• 1 tomato
  
• 1 small onion – slice it and fry the slices until it is brown

Podina Chutney (Mint Sauce) for serving:

1 ounce of mint leaves
1 tsp. salt
½ cup whole dried red chilies
5 tbs. tamarind paste
2 green chilies

Soak the Tamarind in water for an hour.
Remove the seeds from the tamarind.
Put everything into a grinder and grind until it’s a smooth paste. Refrigerate.

Kebabs Recipe:

Take the minced meat and take all the ingredients listed above (from 2 – 12) and mix them in meat as well. Knead carefully and gently until all ingredients are mixed thoroughly. At the end, the mixture would be a bit rough (as you can see that most of the ingredients are not powder crushed). Place the mixture in refrigerator and let it site there for 2-3 hours so that it is thoroughly marinated.

After it has been marinated, take a medium sized portion of the mixture and roll it till it forms a ball. Then place your palm on the ball and keep pressing till it is in the form of a roughly shaped disc. The thickness of the disc should be about 1/2 inch. Make discs out of the rest of the meat as well.

Fry the discs in the oil until brown. Do not use too much oil.

(Image Source: https://www.khanapakana.com/urdu-kebab-recipes/images/images/Chapli-Kabab.jpg)

I forgot to take pictures while cooking so I got the closest match that looks like my kebab from Google.

Serve it with Mint Sauce. You can also eat it with roti/naan (white bread) as is done in India and central areas of Pakistan. Or you can make a sandwich with it. Trust me, it’s better than McDonald’s beef burger :)