Kabab Hossieni Esfahan

One of the traditional dishes in my birth town, Esfahan is Kabab Hosseini. This juicy and tasty kabab it can be made with beef, lamb or chicken breast and served with rice.

My family had a tradition of serving it with mung bean rice #polomash

My uncle who passed away last year loved this dish, and that’s make this dish significance for me. So this year for his first year anniversary I decided to make it for the first time. My auntie was a great cook and made the most delicious Kabab Hosseini but I never learned from her, just saw her preparing the kabab. I also knew the ingredients so I took a chance and cooked it based on memory and my cooking skills. It was magical how I was able to replicate the taste without following a known recipe. It made me happy to be able to make his favorite dish to remember him, and that will be my tradition every year.

Serving 3-4

Prep time 30 minutes

Cooking time 45minutes-1 hour

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts 3 (or you can use lamb or beef, even more delicious)

Onion 4 (2 for meat preparation)

Red,green, yellow pepper 1 of each

Tomatoes 2

Tomato paste 3 Tbsp

Lemon 1

Olive oil 1 tbsp

Yogurt 2 tbsp (for meat preparation)

Spices: Salt, pepper, turmeric1 tsp of each (or based on your preference)

Prepared Saffron 2 tsp (add 1 ice cubes on top of 1 tsp of ground saffron and leave it to melt)

Meat preparation: (flavoring the meat)

-Cut the chicken or beef in 2x2 inch pieces

-Slice 2 onions (vertical slicing)

-Mix the meat, onions, yogurt, one tsp of saffron, salt, pepper and turmeric

Store in the fridge between 3-6 hours.

Note: if you are using red meat don’t add salt, (salt should be added at the end)

Cook time with beef is 2.5 hours and with chicken 1 hour

Note: you also need bamboo skewers

Watch the step by step video

Directions:

1.Soak 7 bamboo skewers in water

2.Slice onion and all different pepper colors in square shape (as much as possible), save the left over pieces in a separate bowl

3.Bring the prepared chicken out of fridge, take a bamboo skewer start with chicken and in between add one slice of onion and one pepper, alternate the pepper color, in each skew you should have 3 pieces of each (chicken, pepper and onion)

4.Repeat this step until you run out of ingredients

5.In a separate bowl mix together tomatoes paste, water, freshly squeezed lemon, prepared saffron, salt, pepper, turmeric (not too much water)

6.Add few drops of olive oil to a big non stick frying pan, pure the tomato paste mix, transfer all the prepared kabab, add the extra onion and pepper slices to the pot as well

7.Slice the tomatoes vertically and put on top of the kabab

8.Cover and cook for 45 minutes-1 hour. Once Kabab is ready you can serve it with rice or bread and enjoy a tasty and healthy dish.

Kabab Hosseini and Mung Rice

Rest in peace my dearest.

My Uncle Akbar Amini