Kebab Halabi

By The New York Times

Total Time
50 minutes
Rating
4(47)
Comments
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This recipe came to The Times by way of Dalia Mortada in a Sunday Review piece she wrote about the role of food in Syria's culture. She collected this simple yet flavorful dish from Ibtissam Masto, a 36-year-old mother of six, who fled to Beirut in 2013, from Idlib, Syria. In Ms. Masto's house, it is known as kebab halabi, or Aleppo kebab, but the dish is more widely known as kebab hindi, a simple ground beef kebab baked with a tomato-onion reduction.This version calls for adding a bit of onion to the meat mixture for moisture, and sumac to the tomato sauce to give it a kick. It’s a great 30-minute meal, best served with vermicelli rice.

Featured in: Recipes from the Syrian Kitchen

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Ingredients

Yield:4 to 6 servings

    For the Kebab

    • 18ounces (500 grams) 85 percent lean ground beef
    • ⅛cup (20 grams) raw almonds, roughly chopped
    • ¼cup finely diced onion (about half a small onion)
    • 1teaspoon kosher salt
    • 1tablespoon seven-spice mix (see note)
    • 1teaspoon olive oil, for the dish

    For the Sauce

    • 3large tomatoes
    • 2teaspoons olive oil
    • 1onion, halved and thinly sliced
    • 1teaspoon kosher salt
    • 2teaspoons sumac
    • One large bell pepper, cut into rings
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

263 calories; 17 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 10 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 5 grams sugars; 18 grams protein; 526 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Prepare the kebab: heat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine the beef, almonds, onion, salt and seven spice mix. Use your hands to massage the ingredients together until mixed, but not overworked.

  2. Step 2

    Lightly oil a 9-inch by 13-inch tray or Pyrex dish. Take a small handful of beef and roll into a 2 ½ to 3-inch cylinder. Repeat until you have 15 little kebabs; set aside.

  3. Step 3

    Prepare the sauce: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Set up an ice bath next to the stove. Score an X into the bottom of the tomatoes and drop in the boiling water. Cook 30 to 60 seconds, or until the skin starts to wrinkle and peel back, then remove to the ice bath. Once cool, peel off the skins and dice the tomatoes.

  4. Step 4

    Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and add the onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes and salt and allow them to cook down 5 minutes. Stir in the sumac and set aside.

  5. Step 5

    Place the kebabs in prepared dish and bake 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and spoon or pour the sauce over the kebabs. Arrange the bell pepper slices on top. Return to the oven for 7 to 10 more minutes, or until the kebabs are cooked through.

  6. Step 6

    Serve warm on top of vermicelli rice.

Tip
  • Seven-spice mix is a combination of spices commonly used in Arabic cooking. Although the proportions vary by country, and even by household, the basic ingredients remain the same: black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, cumin and coriander. Some cooks add paprika or ginger; sometimes there’s white pepper in there, too. Syrian seven-spice mix tends to include allspice seeds, which possess a flavor combination similar to cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Middle Eastern markets carry seven-spice mix.

Ratings

4 out of 5
47 user ratings
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Comments

Susan

You left out some ingredients for the sauce. Looking up the original recipe there should be:

3 large tomatoes
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons sumac
One large bell pepper, cut into rings

sligojones/Paul E. McArdle

Instead of Seven-spice, try Baharat.

Aleppo. How sad to watch crumble this cathedral of Middle
East cuisine.

And Syrian people, how lovely they are. We may not cry for Argentina, but we weep for Syria.

heather

Subs for sumac can be lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, paprika Use zaatar mix in sauce, In meat - homemade spice blend of pepper, white pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, cumin, coriander, paprika, ginger

Tara

This has become a family favorite and a go to recipe for guests. The flavor is as good as from any middle eastern restaurant. I make my own 7 spice recipe from the internet. We use ground lamb when we can fine it and serve it with rice and roasted squash. Amazing!

Susan chira

I endorse the pre browning or cooking a bit longer. I would also up the amount of seven spice mix -- I used ras el hanout.
And agree could use more sauce...

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