Seekh kebab is a kind of skinless mincemeat sausage designed for grilling. I have no idea where the spelling “seekh” comes from, since it's pronounced more like “sikh”, but since it has nothing obvious to do with the Sikh people, I'll leave the spelling the way it is.

I have this spelling from the German edition of a Time-Life series called “Die Kunst des Kochens”. I don't know what the original title was, but the term translates as “The Art of Cooking”. Some things obviously got damaged in translation: for example, the original recipe asks for peppermint leaves, and I'm sure they really mean normal mint. And, of course, even the German issue uses American volumetric measure for most ingredients. I've done my best to translate the units, but also increased the quantities of spices: the original didn't use much at all.

This is the first time I've tried to convert “tablespoons” of fresh herbs like coriander and mint into weights. I may modify the quantities.

On 31 March 2024 I tried a short cut with a spice mix. The result was disastrous.

Ingredients

quantity		ingredient		step
1 kg		Lamb meat, finely minced		1
200 g		yoghurt		2
150 g		onion		2
15 g		ginger		2
20 g		garlic		2
20 g		coriander seed		3
10 g		cumminseed		3
2 g		cinnamon		3
1.2 g		nutmeg		3
0.5 g		cloves		3
10 g		garam masala		3
2 g		cardamom seeds, without pod		3
20 g		coriander leaves		4
12 g		mint leaves		4
7 g		flat-leafed parsley		4
10 g		green chili		4
15 g		salt		4
1		lemon, cut into wedges		5
2		red onions, cut into thin slices		5

Preparation

It's important to keep this dish as dry as possible, or the mixture will crumble when being grilled. Thus a number of the following steps.

1. Mince the meat if it hasn't been done already.
2. Mince the onions, ginger and garlic with the yoghurt and drain in a sieve lined with kitchen paper. Don't wait too long or the onions will taste bad.
3. Dry the whole spices by warming in a dry frying pan, then grind them. Add the powdered spices.
4. Finely chop the fresh herbs and chili
5. Mix all the ingredients to a homogeneous paste and put in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
6. Grill on a plate or on skewers.
7. Garnish with the lemon and raw onion.