If there's one thing that unites my family more than barbecue - well, it's barbecue. We grew up looking forward to Sundays when my brother would prepare the fire, my Dad would marinate and put the chicken and kebab on the sticks, my mom would make the saffron rice, and I would be the first to eat.
I've enjoyed kebab koobideh all my life that it wasn't until this year that I made an effort to learn how to make it! Mixing the ingredients is easy - it's as simple as ground meat, fat, ground onions, salt and pepper -- by hand. The hardest part would be scraping the fat off your fingers afterwards. Then comes passing the kebab stick through the meat. I tried so many times, but kept failing! It's actually not easy! To even out the meat on the stick?! Whenever I'm in Iran and we go to Towhid's to buy koobideh, I'm always awestruck with how FAST and perfect the men put the meat on the sticks by hand! Luckily just this year we discovered kebab moulders! We bought several from the bazaar in Kerman and brought back to Nigeria so that we could teach some of our staff. Here's a video I took of my Dad working with the kebab moulder:
My Dad finds the moulder very time-consuming, so he sticks to the traditional way. He's used to making hundreds at one go! For example, every year the Iranian Embassy in Nigeria invites him to makes 300 sticks for their guests. That's why I call him the Kebab Master! I also recently discovered that one of his brothers in Canada is equally a pro!
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| passing the skills to the next generation |
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| my favorite picture! |
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| even cats come around |
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| This pictures shows several barbecue stands - all of them built by my Dad |
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| My dad made more kebab by hands than four of us altogether using kebab moulders did, in preps for the first Rooftop Bazaar |
Here I've only shown you the art of making kebab. Don't get me started on the art of SERVING it. I've leave you to (but make sure you're on a full stomach right now). Go and google "chelo kebab koobideh".