Manchester Shami Kebab

[livo]

Food is life LC. 

I buy as much fresh food as I can at marked down prices, and cook what tastes good.  I did a 10 hour slow cook glazed Lamb shoulder with roasted root vegetables on Thursday so the family could have a break from curries.  They don't share my passion for spice and gravy, so I need to find other ways of preparing things to expand their palate. 

These Shami Kebabs look like a treat.  I have already found a couple of leads but it is always good to use a recipe from this sites experienced contributors.

I regularly buy several whole chickens at marked down prices, take them home and immediately bone them out completely except for the wings. This gives me breast & thigh fillets plus boneless drumstick meat for half of the deli / meats bar price. The wings I collect and freeze to use in a staff curry or as baked Honey Soy Sesame wings.  I'm always on the lookout for reduced lamb legs and shoulders as well.  Not as easy to find but they do come up.  My Golden Labrador does pretty well out of the deal as well.  The sound of a knife being dragged across the diamond sharpening steel is a dinner bell to her.

[livo]

Have you ever been Santa Clause trying to put a Christmas present together in the dark on Xmas eve, with the instructions written in Chinese English. I have, and this adventure into a packet mix Shami Kabab is pretty similar. A short post here for now because it's mid event, damage control. More to come.  I wish I actually had done this before.

[livo]

After 5 hours I've turned it off, drained and fridged it, and photographed some things. Too tired tonight so I'll amuse you all tomorrow. Shan Shami Kabab is the product up for discussion.

I can believe it is truly Indian. How long does it take to evaporate 6 - 8 cups of water from a large pot, on the lowest flame, with the lid on?
Would you mix 3 raw eggs into a bowl of hot stewed meat and still hope to do anything with it? Instructions.

[Peripatetic Phil]

• Cook meat with lentil, onions, ginger paste, garlic paste and Shan Shami Kabab Mix in 8-10 cups of water. Bring to boil. Cover and cook on low heat until meat is tender and wateris reduced.
• When done, about 2 cups of liquid should remain in the pot. Then remove and grind the meat mixture coarsely. Add eggs and knead well. Make about 20 round flat patties.
• Heat oil and shallow / deep fry the kababs evenly on both sides until crispy golden.

Seems reasonable; what is the problem exactly ?

[livo]

After 1 hour simmering with the lid on, as per instruction, it was clear that covering is wrong. After 4 hours!, uncovered,  the lamb has disintegrated as expected but there remained 4 cups of liquid. Not 2.

After 5 hours I drained it off anyway but there was no way I would put 3 eggs into it without cooling it first.

The instructions on the pack read OK but it doesn't happen. I'll have to examine the mix this morning and decide what to do.

[livo]

The nearly 4 cups of liquid that was drained off (instead of 2) must surely contain a whole lot of flavour and spicing that is simply gone. The meat mixture tastes OK this morning so I'll now go ahead and mix through the eggs and gently fry the kebabs.  I'll post my opinion of the end result later.

There is no possible way that you can reduce 8 - 10 cups of liquid down to 2 over a low flame in a pan covered by a lid, even allowing for the Chana Daal to absorb some, in a time frame that would not completely destroy the meat. The evaporation - condensation reflux cycle of a covered pot would keep the fluid level high for a very long time.

There is no mention of allowing the drained meat mixture to cool.  The 3 raw eggs are a binding agent and if they were whisked and added to the mixture while still hot, they would instantly cook before the kebabs are formed and this function would not occur.

I only tried this out as I had nearly 1.5 kg of frozen lamb mince and boneless rump steaks that needed to be used up.  Maybe a packet mix was not the best way to go. 

Finished.  I doubt I'll follow this box instructions again. The resultant mass, after adding the eggs was way too wet. The individual kebabs could barely be formed at all and simply dissolved in the cooking oil.  I only tried to cook 2 as I thought the egg might hold them together. It didn't.  I think the whole meat mixture needed to be wrapped in muslin and wrung out like a cheese before the eggs went in.

I had to add 1 ¹/₂ cups of bread crumb to solidify the mix into something that could be formed and cooked.  Maybe Gram Flour / Besan would have been more Indian but the crumbs did the trick.  Anyway, the finished kebabs are actually quite tasty with a nice bit of chilli heat.  They should be pretty good for dinner in a wrap with some fresh salad and minted cucumber raita or sour cream.

[chewytikka]

Looks like a fair rescue Livo, good tip, bin the box, the recipes are always
badly written.

Robs 4 photos should have give you enough idea how to cook this type of
Pakistani Kebab shop favourite

If I wanted to create something similar to Robs Shamis/Reshmis I would
use a pressure cooker, saut

[livo]

CT. Thank you kindly once again.  They are actually pretty tasty, but I will look further into your recommendation. I will certainly look back at the OP photos.

Nobody complained about them in last nights dinner. ;D

[Kashmiri Bob]

Apologies for the slight delay.  Chewy was very close indeed! Well worked out.  

I really need to find my notes/final recipe for this, however it is based on this one:

http://yummyindiankitchen.com/shami-kabab-recipe-hyderabadi-mutton-shami-kabab-recipe/

What I remember.  This will make a decent shami as it stands.  Changes I made.  Pan cooked (I wanted to see what was going on).  Previously made a mess using a pressure cooker.  Mutton mince.  I tried various ratios of mutton with chicken and I think once, turkey mince, but the best results were had with just the mutton.  I reckon I will have added more green chilli.  After the kebabs were formed just a flour/egg dip, and fry.  Can serve straight away, or even better allow to cool, then reheat in the micro for that authentic Abdul's soggyfication.

Essential for replicating the Abdul's Manchester shami.  I replaced some of the chickpeas in the recipe with Zaatar (thyme pastry topping). The brand I used was Sofra, Zaatar Extra.  I got it from an Iranian food shop. It contains roasted wheat, roasted chickpeas, thyme, sumac, sesame seeds, salt and veg oil. 

I'll make a batch soon to workout the ratio/amounts of chickpea and Zaatar.  The latter will obviously also contribute to the binding, so you can easily end up too wet, or too dry.  I hope I can find my notes!  The ones pictured in the recipe link look on the dry side to me.  One last thing (for now).  I used dried chickpeas rehydrated overnight and then drained.   

Rob

[Peripatetic Phil]

Thank you for that most interesting link, Rob.  Although the site is not easy to navigate [1], I eventually found a recipe for Masala Dosa, one of my all-time-favourite southern Indian dishes, so I shall be trying that at some point in the not-too-distant future.  Oh, and I've just spotted a recipe for Murgh Makhani, to which I shall refer George who is currently researching such things.

** Phil.
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[1] But it also has some very positive aspects, not the least of which is that it has a dedicated print sub-system which allows the number of portions to be specified and pro ratas all ingredients accordingly.  Now that is something from which many sites (including this one) would benefit.