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kabob-koobideh

After ghormeh sabzi and tahdig, koobideh is probably the most popular Persian dish that exists. My favorite meal on Earth is kabob with some HEAVILY sumac-ed up rice, grilled tomatoes, and a heavy serving of raw onions. Can't hurt to have some tahdig on the side either. Growing up I'd watch my dad, the kabob master of the family, pour his heart and soul into his kabob. My dad is who inspired me to cook and it's because of him that I share this recipe with you today. Let me tell you about how DEDICATED this man is to kabob. Almost every Sunday we'd have it. We used to go to Poconos every summer with a few other families. An absolute necessity to pack with us was our "mangal" a simple charcoal grill. All the dads would get together, marinate their own meats, and grill for all of our families by the lake. Recipes passed down generations. No two versions of the same kabob were the same (my dad's was of course the best). It doesn't matter the weather, my dad will make kabob for his family; rain or shine, in temperatures below freezing or when it's uncomfortably hot. It's his recipe I share with you today. Koobideh doesn't require too many ingredients. I only use onion, salt, pepper, and baking soda (for optimal "fluffy" texture, helps prevent a dense product). Others will add spices like saffron, turmeric, or even sumac–totally fine, but I prefer my koobideh to be simple! This is a dish that relies more heavily on technique, aka draining the grated onions of their juices, properly building the skewers, keeping the meat cold right before grilling, and the way we grill it. I know not everyone has access to a grill, but for the best result I STRONGLY advise you to use a charcoal grill. Charcoal flavor is the key to an amazing result. If you must, use a gas grill, but make sure to remove the grates. I'll even provide instructions for oven baking :) Instead of rice here, I opted for noon-eh sangak–any flat bread would do here. Kabob and bread yields one of the greatest products on Earth–you see, when you remove your kabob from the skewer, you'll usually do so on a large platter with bread underneath. This bread soaks up all the charcoaly meat juices and it's just divine. We call this "noon zireh kabob", or translated to "bread underneath the meat". One of the BEST BITES ON THE PLANET is a sandwich with this bread, some freshly de-skewered koobideh, grilled tomatoes, and sumac onions. Out of this world.

Ingredients