I love me some mediterranean food. Just like everything else, it’s just too damn expensive to go buy it all the time. This was one of those days I thought, let’s give it a whirl. MrsForensicBBQ and I laid out all the ingredients we were going to cook on this particular weekend – and this was the result:
I think she’ll be knocking out two posts from this weekend, and I’ll have made this one. I did attempt to make a garlic sauce (Toum) and it did not turn out great. Flavor was spot on, but it didn’t solidify, cream-ify.. it wasn’t great. I’ll leave the photos in here, but I can’t in good faith give you the recipe/instruction without making sure it’s correct. That being said, here’s the recipe for the “Mediterranean meatloaf” and the best rice I’ve made
The Prep Table
Let’s start with the koobideh – which is a Persian word, I guess. Apparently it’s cooked on some flat skewers over hot coals, nowhere near the way you’re going to see the way I did. I didn’t have flat skewers, and I only had four regular skewers. I made an executive decision and decided to stick it with two skewers so it didn’t just simply spin on one. And because of that, these are some beefy kebabs. Spoiler up front, these turned out meat loaf-y (RIP) but delicious!
This was the simple recipe that failed me. Well, I’m pretty sure it’s ME who failed the recipe – but I tried. Salt, Lemon juice, garlic, a ton of grapeseed oil, and a dark mason jar of ice water.
Pretty easy rice recipe too. Ironically, this was my favorite part of the meal. The rice was so fragrant and the taste was wonderful. Definitely give this one a try!
The Process
This whole de-juicing of the onion was the most painstaking part. What I did was place the strainer over a measuring cup and grated two onions into it. As if that didn’t suck enough, I pressed the onions a bit into the strainer and tried to get rid of even more juice. I then ripped a piece of cheesecloth, balled up the onion pulp, and squeezed the hell out of it. Wasn’t fun, but got it done.
Now that the onions are done, it was time to mix up the meats. I believe koobideh traditionally uses lamb, maybe a mix of lamb and beef – but I only used beef. I also used an extremely small bowl to mix it in because MrsForensicBBQ used all the bigger ones. Check out her posts on Mondays, she makes incredible plant-based meals!
I loved using these seasonings – especially the sumac and turmeric. combine with some baking powder, salt and pepper, dice up a green onion and crack a couple eggs.
Got it all combined and balled up, covered a much larger bowl with some plastic wrap and let them flavors distribute in the fridge for about a half hour. While that was doing its thing, I attempted to make a garlic sauce.
My guess is I didn’t let the processor process enough – maybe I poured the oil in too quickly.. I don’t know! Since I love me a garlic sauce, I’ll be trying this one again. The result was very runny and thin – although the flavor was spot on (garlic and lemon juice, what a concept).
Haha, I didn’t really take much pictures of the rice process. Apologies. This was after I heated up the oil/ghee and got them onions cooking. I seasoned them up with ground cardamom, cinnamon stick, turmeric, garlic, bay leaves and cumin – add the rice and chicken broth and simmer. MrsForensicBBQ watch the rice for me while I was tending to the meat logs on sticks.
Got the grill hot, sprayed down the GrillGrates with some Pam Grill Spray and dropped the logs on there. While having a bunch of flat skewers, thinner. meat on the skewers would’ve been ideal – sometimes you just work with what you got.
These were looking dynamite. I put on the heat gloves, nitrile ones over them and just kept flipping them. I think these were on for about 20 minutes or so… I was cooking until the internal temp was about 160F. I did a rotate every 2 minutes or so to make sure they were nice and evenly cook. Somewhere about 10 minutes in.. I forgot the tomatoes
Meat is cooked, Tomatoes grilled, Rice was on the oven waiting – and the liquidy garlic sauce was chilling. Only thing left is to plate it and heat up some bread!
The Result
Now that we got the sauce pictures out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff
These turned out amazing. What I did today while they were fresh.. Sliced it and plated it. As I re-heated it throughout the week, I just made bite-sized pieces and reheated it. I might have to buy some flat skewers and give this recipe another go.
Yeah, as much as I talk about how good the koobideh was (and how poorly the garlic sauce turned out) – the star of the show was the rice. Topped it with some shaved almonds and parsley and it was so flavorful and delicious. Sure, the tomatoes are fine too – but this meal was outstanding.
Can’t wait to keep venturing outside the comfort zone. Yeah, I get it – ForensicBBQ.. we haven’t done much traditional barbecue fare lately, but I hope you’re enjoying these cooks as much as I enjoy sharing them with you. And lets hope the meat prices start falling soon!
The Recipe
Kebab Koobideh w/ Yellow Rice
Ingredients
Koobideh Kebab
- 2 Lbs Ground Beef
- 2 Onions Grated
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Green Onion Diced
- 2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Black Pepper
- 1 Tsp Sumac Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Ground Turmeric
- 1 Pack Pitas
Yellow Rice
- 1 Tsp Ghee
- 1 Tsp Olive Oil
- 1 Onion Diced
- 1/2 Tsp Turmeric
- 1/2 Tsp Ground Cardamom
- 1/2 Tsp Ground Cumin
- 1 Stick Cinnamon
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 4 Cloves Garlic
- 1 Cup Basmati Rice
- 1 Can Chicken broth
- Parsley
- Almonds
Instructions
Koobideh Kebab
- Grate the onions into a mesh strainer. Press pulp into the strainer to remove juices. Place the pulp into a cheesecloth and press until the juices stop flowing.
- In a mixing bowl, add beef, green onion and onion pulp and combine. Mix in baking powder, salt, pepper, sumac, and turmeric. Add eggs and mix thoroughly. Cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Get the RecTeq and GrillGrates rolling for about 450 degrees. Spray the grates with Pam Grill Spray.
- Shape into two logs and pierce with two skewers (stability, prevent from spinning).
- Place on the GrillGrates, rotate every 2 minutes, until evenly cooked and IT 160F
Yellow Rice
- Heat a medium-sized pot on medium-high heat. Add ghee & olive oil. When heated, add the onions, cook the onions until soft.
- Add the garlic, turmeric, cardamom, cumin, cinnamon stick, bay leaves. Saute for 1-3 minutes.
- Add the rice and stir.
- Pour in the chicken stock, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover -cook until done.
- Remove the lid and fluff the rice. Let rest.
- Garnish with parsley and almonds!