Shami Kebab is, arguably, the most delicious of all kebabs. This kebab recipe is definitely our all-time favourite in the Honest Cooks Kitchen! Shami Kebab is made with mutton or lamb or beef. The meat is cut and boiled with chickpea lentils in a pressure cooker. The patties are flavored with ginger, garlic, green chilies, fresh mint, coconut, and homemade garam masala. Shami Kebab is often shallow fried or pan-fried. We have shallow fried ours in this video.
How is this video so special and different from all other recipes out there?
In this video, we share with you a secret family recipe that has been handed down for generations in Rome's family. (Wondering who Rome is? Well, he is one of our two co-founders. Read more about him on our About page!)
After some family deliberations, we decided to share this family secret with our viewers! We hope you will enjoy this recipe as much as we do! We wanted to add this video to our series, Lost Recipes of India, but technically speaking, this is not a lost recipe.
Shami kebab is readily available on menus of several Indian restaurants outside of India. But, no matter where we tried it, there was always something missing! So, now, we just make this at home! Once you try this recipe, we guarantee you will be reluctant to order Shami Kebab from a restaurant because NOTHING will ever be this delicious!
Let's get right into it, then!
Ingredients:
These ingredients will make 10 -12 kebabs, each between 50-55 gm
Boneless Mutton or Lamb, high muscle & low fat content: 750 gm
Split Chickpea lentils, soaked overnight in room temp water: 150 gm
Onions, sliced: 125 gm
Ginger, cleaned & rough chopped: 50 gm (We used 35 gm of concentrated paste because we couldn't find fresh ginger)
Garlic, peeled & crushed: 30 gm
Green chilies, stems removed: 20 - 25 gm depending on your heat tolerance
Fresh mint leaves, chiffonade: 15 gm
Coconut, sliced : 50 -55 gm
Bay leaves: 3 large pieces
Ghee: 1 Tbsp. or ~10 gm
Garam Masala: 1 Tbsp. or ~10gm (We used homemade garam masala)
Salt: 1.5 Tbsp or ~15 gm
Egg, large: 1
Water, room temp: ~260 ml
Oil, to fry: about half cup to shallow fry & less if you will pan fry.
Directions:
For authentic Shami Kebab, you need to start the night before and soak chickpea lentils in room temp water for around 8 hours or overnight. Chickpea lentils are NOT pigeon peas or even Yellow split lentils. Detailed explanation at the end of the recipe, under Notes. Skip to explanation.
The next day, remove the lentils on a strainer and let stand for a few mins to allow the water to drip off.
Clean the meat and cut into chunks. You need to remove excess fat and silver skin.
To your pressure cooker, add the meat, lentils, onions, bay leaves, salt, & water. (Remember the number of bay leaves added.) Give it a mix and cook on low to medium flame. Cooking time will vary on your cut of meat and your altitude. For me, it took about 1 hour and 2 whistles of the cooker. Note: If you have a pressure cooker and you are confident about the cooking time, you should use the pressure cooker to cook the meat since the process is faster. BUT, if you are not sure, go for a heavy bottom pot with a lid so you can easily check the doneness of the meat. Alternatively, you can do this in an instant pot as well.
While the meat is cooking, prep the other ingredients. For that you need to start by toasting the coconut on a dry & hot skillet. When the coconut is lightly browned, remove on a plate to cool.
In a grinder or a blender, add the cooled down coconut, ginger, garlic, green chilies, and no more than 2 tbsp. of water. Make a coarse paste. Set aside.
If you haven't already, chiffonade the mint by placing the leaves in top of one another and rolling it into a pipe shape. Then, chop finely with a share knife to end up with thin strings.
When the cooker has released pressure naturally & you are easily able to open the cooker, you are ready to move to the next steps. If there is still some water in the pot/cooker, burn off on high flame.
Remove the cooked meat in a big bowl so that you can fish out the bay leaves. Count and remove all the bay leaves you added - this will mess up the grinding process if they end up in the grinder with the meat.
When you are ready, add the meat mixture to a grinder and make a coarse paste. DO NOT add excess water at all.
Remove the paste back into your big bow and add in the other things we had prepped: coconut paste with ginger, garlic, chilies, garam masala, ghee, mint, and 1 whole egg.
Go in with your hands and combine everything together.
To shape the kebabs, grease your hands with a drop of oil. Take a dollop of the kebab mixture and make it into a round patty. If you make a shape similar to mine, you should get about 10-12 kebabs of ~55 gm each. Alternatively, you can weigh every single one.
Shallow fry or pan fry on medium to high heat, using neutral cooking oil.
Remove on kitchen towels to soak off excess oil.
Serve with your favorite green chutney or try this quick recipe: 1 bunch of cilantro with stems removed, 40 gm of ginger and garlic each, 30 gm of green chilies, salt to taste, cumin seeds, and 20 gm of fresh mint, blended together into a fine paste with no more that 50 ml of water.
Some tips and notes:
Chick pea lentils is not the same as pigeon peas or yellow split peas. Garbanzo beans are also called chick peas, a.k.a chana dal in India. Yellow split pea is called matar dal. Yellow split pea is just that, a pea, while chick pea is a bean (although both are legumes). Furthermore, pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), a.k.a pigeonpea, or red gram or tur/toor dal is also a legume that looks similar to the first two but is different. It is what will be used in yellow lentil curries in most Indian recipes. A visual differentiation between these might help:
2. If you have a pressure cooker and you are confident about the cooking time, you should use the pressure cooker to cook the meat since the process is faster. BUT, if you are not sure, go for a heavy bottom pot with a lid so you can easily check the doneness of the meat.
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