Shami Kebab

This is a cheater's version of Shami Kebab. What I mean by that is, it tastes like Shami kebab, but the methods I used for making the kebab is far away from the actual way of making it. I have found the original process of making the kebab (which involves cooking the meat and split chickpeas together with spices, then mashing them, and then making into balls and frying them) involves too much work and takes too long. My version is fast and tasty with crispy kebab on the outside and a soft moist inside. I have used the same ingredients, except using whole split chickpeas (which need to be cooked) I used split chickpea flour (or ground up split chickpea) and instead of using cooked meat I used raw minced beef.

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

• Minced Beef - 1 lb(450 gm), at least 85% lean meat, the more the better
  
• Chickpea flour - 1- 2 cups
• Onion - 1 med, finely chopped
• Garlic cloves - 2, minced
• ginger root - 1 cm pc, finely grated
  
• Green chilies - 3-4, finely chopped
• Egg - 1
• Whole coriander seeds - 1 tsp, crushed
• Whole cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp, crushed
• Black pepper corns - 1/2 tsp, crushed
• Chili flakes - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp (or to taste)
• Cloves - 3-4 pc
• Cardamons - 2-3 pc
• Cinnamon stick - 1/2 inch long pc
  

Methods:

• 1. Lightly pan roast the cardamons, cloves and cinnamon together and ground them to a fine powder. Pan roast the cumin and coriander seeds and the black pepper corns, till fragrant. Crush them with the back of a heavy pan. Do not ground these, as the specks of the spices adds a texture to the kebabs.
• 2. In a bowl beat in the egg, add the onions, chilies, garlic, ginger, all the ground up and crushed up dry spices, chili flakes and salt.
  

• 3. Slowly, with a fork, mix in the minced beef with the egg mixture. It will still be quite gooey in texture.
  
• 4. Now, carefully mix in the chickpea flour 1 tbsp at a time, so that you can control how much is needed. Do this until the beef reaches a doughy consistency, so that you can form them into round shaped disk. Make about 12 1/2 cm thick disks or less or more depending on the size of the kebabs you want.
• 5. Fry them till brown and crispy. Remove and drain them on a paper towel off any excess oil. Serve immediately.