Chelow kabab

In case you didn't know, it was Persian New Year back on March 21. To celebrate, I decided to cook up some Persian dishes that I grew up loving. Here I profile chelow kabab, the national dish of Iran. It's incredibly delicious but also very easy to make if you have a BBQ grill (or a George Foreman-esque grill like me) and some metal skewers. Preferably you would use these special skewers, but really almost any type of skewer will do.

If it's just you and maybe two other people, these proportions will work fine. Multiply or divide accordingly.

Start with 500 g of lean ground beef, 1 egg, 1 small-medium onion (diced), 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, a clove or two of garlic, and maybe throw in some bread crumbs and parlsey for good measure. Throw this all in a bowl and MASH with your hands. Get them all mixed together.

Next, thinly shape the meat around the skewers, no more than a 1 cm radius. They should look either like flat hot dogs if you're using the special skewers or like thin hot dogs if you're using regular skewers. This part may be difficult because you want to wrap it firmly enough so it stays intact but if you press too hard it may fall apart. What I wrote probably doesn't make sense but you'll get the hang of it when you start shaping it.

Place on the grill and cook like you would a burger, preferably on medium high heat and flipping once!

Delicious!