Seekh kebab platter

Before you start

• skewers, or a very hot griddle
• chill the shaped kebabs 30 minutes or they slide off the metal

Ingredients

Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 320gbeef mince — coarse ground, and not the leanest tray — the fat is what keeps it from drying over that heat
• 40gwholemeal atta
• 1 tbspgram flour — roasted dry — the binder, in place of egg
• 1onion
• 2green chillies
• 1 handfulcoriander and mint
• 1 thumbginger and garlic
• 2 tspgaram masala, roasted cumin and chaat masala
• 3 tbspgreen chutney
• 1red onion
• 1lemon

Method

7 steps

1. chop · 8m

   Onion grated and then wrung out in a cloth, hard, until nothing more comes. Wet onion is the reason seekh kebabs fall off the skewer into the fire.

2. fold · 5m

   Everything kneaded into the mince for a full two minutes — worked that long it turns tacky and clings to the back of the hand, which is the test.

3. rest · 30m walk away

   Pressed along the skewers in a long even sleeve and chilled half an hour.

4. grill · 10m

   Over the fiercest heat you have, turned only once each side has released itself. Forced early it tears in half and stays in the pan.

5. grill · 5m

   Cooked right through — mince has to be, all the way in, with no pink left in the centre of the thickest kebab.

6. grill · 8m

   Rotis on a dry hot pan alongside, thirty seconds a side.

7. finish · 4m

   Slid off the metal onto the bread with raw onion, lemon, chaat masala and green chutney.