Beef chapli kebab with pomegranate chutney
Beef Chapli Kebab with Pomegranate Chutney taken from Summers Under the Tamarind Tree by Sumayya Usmani (Frances Lincoln Ltd)
Photograph by Joanna Yee
Ingredients
Serves 6
1lb/2¼ lb fine beef mince (ground beef) with fat
1 red onion, very finely chopped
4 spring onions (scallions), very finely chopped
1–2 green chillies, very finely chopped
2 handfuls of finely chopped coriander (cilantro)
1 large tomato, finely chopped
1 tbsp dry-roasted coriander (cilantro) seeds, ground in a mortar and pestle
2.5cm/1-inch piece ginger, peeled and grated on a grater (like a Microplane)
2 tbsp ground anardana (dried pomegranate)
1½ tbsp cornmeal flour or fine polenta (or use gram flour)
salt, to taste
1 egg
3–5 tbsp vegetable oil
To garnish
3–5 red radishes, chopped
1 tomato, sliced
2 spring onions (scallions), chopped
1 lime
For the pomegranate chutney
Mix 3 tablespoons dried and ground anardana (dried pomegranate) with 1 finely chopped green chilli, 1 crushed garlic clove, a large handful of chopped coriander and 10 chopped mint leaves.
Bash it all up in a mortar and pestle and serve with chapli kebabs
Method
Mix all the ingredients, except the oil, together in a large bowl. Begin kneading and squeezing the mixture together like you would a dough. The more you knead and squeeze everything together by hand, the less chance it will break when frying. Continue kneading and squeezing the mixture until it feels sticky then cover with clingfilm and allow to rest in the fridge overnight. Before frying allow the mixture to come to room temperature.
Using your hands, take about 3 heaped tablespoons of the mixture and shape into a flat oblong kebab about 5mm/¼ inch thick and about 13cm/5 inches wide (at the greatest width). Using a tawa, pancake pan, griddle or frying pan, heat 1 teaspoon oil for each kebab.
Add 2–3 kebabs at a time and cook on one side. If the kebab is very thin, it will take about 3–5 minutes. Remove from the pan and repeat with the remaining kebabs. To serve, place a hot kebab on top of a naan, add the radish, tomato, spring onion, a squeeze of lime and a little of the pomegranate chutney.
