So I am bringing a bunch of kabob patties to my friend’s surprise birthday party (skewers are too difficult with ground meat kabobs), and I was wondering what level of tumeric I should use. My mother is from Northern Iran, and that whole side of the family makes koobideh without any tumeric (just beef, onions, parsley, garlic, and sometimes fenugreek leaves). But I usually find restaurant kabob to have a noticeable amount of tumeric.
I realize I may be the only middle eastern person on this board, but I figure enough of you live in LA or NY or somewhere with good Persian restaurants… do you prefer kabob that is basically yellow from all the tumeric, or kabob that is basically hamburger-colored from a lack of tumeric?
I suspect it is a regional thing. I think in Tehran and Northern Iran (my family is from Rasht and Tehran), tumeric isn’t used often, but that it is more common in other areas and in Afghanistan. Nevertheless, I like it with at least some tumeric, despite that not being how my grandmother made it… I ended up going with a lowish amount of tumeric (4 teaspoons for 5 lbs of beef) and everyone at the party loved it.
I lived in the south and never made as far north as Tehran. Ahwaz. I think there were a lot of Arabs there too. Food rocked.
Did you use onion in the mix for the patties? I believe part of the prep of the kebabs is that you wring out the minced onion first to remove the liquid and then add plenty of fat to make the meat stick to the skewers. And a big mound of rice to serve it on. Maybe a raw egg or two… mmmm…
Ahhh, I had forgotten about these. Are they related to kibbeh? I think my favorite of all this is Polo - I can eat that by itself. If you ask me the tumeric is less important than the sumac, but I know it can be hard to find in the US. I do with Koofteh what I do with Kibbeh, which is dump in the za’atar (like 2 tbsp for four people) and 1 tsp tumeric.
Can you get zereshk? I have no idea where to find it in Paris…
They don’t list zereshk, but maybe they can get it. I love this shop, but it’s actually faster/easier/cheaper for me to buy from them online and have them mail it to me than it is for me to drive there and pay for parking. It’s only a few miles from work, but it’s downtown Seattle by the market.
If it’s the same sumac that grows all over the place (at least in VT where I grew up) it can be made into a refreshign summer beverage.
Just pick the bunches of berries after it’s been dry for a couple of days (the rain washes the flavour away to some extent) then soak in water. You probably want to run it through a strainer afterwards to remove bugs etc.
Tastes kind of like pink lemonade.
So yeah it would be good in a beer (My wife now just rolls her eyes everytime I say 'I wonder if xxx would be good in a beer)
I have a thing of ground sumac I got from the Indian/mideast shop. Still haven’t gone and used it, yet. It has a nice, although not terrifically pleasant smell, so I think I’d avoid using the powdered stuff for beer unless you love it.
