Kafka Kebabs

My Lebanese partner and I have recently made a go of making kefta kebabs, a Middle Eastern specialty recently renamed Kafka Kebabs by one of our friends. They are basically a tube of ground meat with herbs, spices and onions that are grilled over a charcoal fire.

A basic recipe calls for finely ground meat, herbs, spices, and a binding agent.

• For the meat, begin with approximately 1 # of ground meat. We've tried lamb, beef and bison, although lamb would be the most common meat of choice in the region of origin.
• Finely mince two bunches of flat leaf parsley, as if you would do anything as crazy as purchase curly leaf parsley!
• One large onion, finely minced.
• For spices, one heaping teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of cumin and cinnamon, and two table spoons of seven-spice powder (to be explained later).
• For a binding agent you will need a tablespoon of baking soda.

The meat must be finely ground, and somewhat fatty. As store processed meat is not finely ground enough, toss the meat into a food processor and give it a few whirs with the spices and baking soda. If you purchased lean meat, you may want to toss in a couple of tablespoons of butter to increase the fat ration. This is absolutely necessary if the kebabs are to stick together properly. The baking soda has an interesting effect. It increases the stickiness of the mixture, allowing the kebabs to maintain their form on the grill.

After you have mixed together the dry ingredients in the food processor, dump the meat into a mixing bowl and mix the parsley and onions in by hand. Form the meat around a skewer into tubes about 3/4 to 1 inch thick and anywhere from 5 inches to a foot long. If you want to dispense with the skewer, keep them about five inches long.

Grill over hot coals a few minutes on each side until done, and eat in pita with humus.