An Authentic Lamb Kebab Recipe
A great recipe from Laura Kelley….
I’ve been toying with the idea of putting an authentic lamb kofta type dish on one of our casual dining menus and so I turned to the wonderful Silk Road Gourmet blog for inspiration. I have wanted to esplore ‘new’ flavour combinations from other regions of Asia for a few years now but my knowledge of Central Asian cuisine has always been very limited. It’s thanks to Laura that I have begun to get an understanding of the region and a history of its food.
What inspires me about Laura’s recipes are some of the key ingredients; dried fruits, herbs, spice mixes, pommegranates, lemons, it’s so good to have fresh ideas and inspiration from countries so poorly represented on the food map and they make you want to get in the kitchen and try out these wonderful combinations.
So I had lamb on my mind, I wanted a ‘proper’ recipe for a kebab/kofta type dish, something slightly different from the norm. Laura posted a recipe on lamb kebabs and the spicing of the lamb intrigued me. Laura adds a recipe for a broth but I’m looking at serving it with some warm flatbreads, a dipping sauce of some kind and a fresh tomato salad.
I made these koftas sticking to Laura’s recipe and the combination of lamb, star anise and mint is really quite special. They taste great and are well worth trying.
lamb kebab
Cracking !
I’ll take a plate full chef !
August 30, 2009 @ 9:18 am
Wow! Lovely adaptation, Miles!
That’’s part of the beauty of many of the recipes in the Silk Road Gourmet - how they can be tailored to fit different menus. I have offered the traditional recipe and presentation and now chefs and cooks can have at them and personalize them as they see fit. An excellent example of breaking through the “artificial uniformity” of strict adherance to recipe that has been imposed on the art of the kitchen in recent years.
If I may be so bold as to suggest a sauce and a salad - The pomegranate sauce from the Georgian chapter of SRG. You can use as is or change the spices a bit to move the basil to mint. . . As to tomato salads - there is the Tomato and Cheese from Turkmenistan (on the website under Ramadan Kareem) or to keep the idea of mint flowing the Iranain Shiraz Tomato Salad from the Iranian chapter. How ever you choose to go about it, I’m sure it will be a winner on the menu - you have great instinct.
I don’t know if the mezze/tapas dining style has swept the UK like it has the US, but many of the recipes from Silk Road Gourmet would also fit that sort of dining style as well.
Thanks!
Laura
August 30, 2009 @ 2:50 pm
Rod,
Sorry, too late!!!
Miles
August 30, 2009 @ 4:15 pm
Miles/Laura,
A great looking recipe. I love the idea of the star anise in there. Consider me a convert!
GDave
August 30, 2009 @ 4:28 pm
Laura,
but I have got a jar of seeds so that eases the pain.
The side dishes sound great, I served a tomato salad with the ‘practice run’ and your version sounds great. I’m into pommegranates but will have to wait a while before I can get some
Tapas (good and bad) has been around in the UK for a while now, I do like the informlity of it.
Thanks for the recipe Laura.
Miles
August 30, 2009 @ 4:30 pm