Chapli kebab

Ingredients

• Minced beef — fatty600 g
• Cornmeal60 g
• Tomatoes — finely diced2
• Onion — finely chopped1
• Coriander seeds — coarsely crushed2 tbsp
• Dried pomegranate seeds1 tbsp
• Green chillies3
• Egg1
• Coriander leaf8 sprig
• Ghee for frying120 g
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Mix the mince with the cornmeal, egg, onion, chilli, coriander leaf, crushed coriander seed, pomegranate seeds and salt.

   10 min

2. 2

   Fold in the tomatoes last so they do not weep too early, and chill the mixture for twenty minutes.

   22 min

3. 3

   With wet hands shape flat patties twelve centimetres across and a centimetre thick.

   10 min

4. 4

   Heat half a centimetre of ghee and fry them three or four minutes a side over medium heat, uncovered.

   16 min

5. 5

   Serve with flatbread, onion rings and lemon. Traditionally an egg is broken over each patty in the pan.

About the dish

The cornmeal here is a binder rather than a filler: it holds the moisture from the tomatoes and keeps the patty from falling apart while staying crisp at the edges.

Coriander seeds go in whole, coarsely crushed. Ground, they give an even background; whole, they burst as separate points of flavour, and that is what makes a chapli recognisable.

The patties are shaped very thin, about a centimetre. Thick ones do not cook through, because they are fried fast in plenty of fat rather than covered and stewed.

Worth knowing

• — The mince has to be fatty. Lean gives dry brittle patties that break apart when turned.
• — No lid: under one the tomatoes steam and the patty is stewed instead of fried.
• — Pomegranate seeds can be replaced by a pinch of amchur or a drop of lemon in the mix — what is wanted is acidity, not pomegranate specifically.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

560 kcal

Protein

34 g

Fat

40 g

Carbs

16 g

More from Pakistan

• Nihari — Beef shin stewed overnight in a thick spiced gravy with marrow, bound with a wheat-flour slurry.