Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 kgminced lamb
- with about twenty percent fat
- 1onion, grated and drained
- 1 teaspoonground allspice
- 1 teaspoonground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoonground nutmeg
- 2 teaspoonssalt
- 1 teaspoonblack pepper
- a handful of parsley, chopped
Cherry sauce
- 1.5 kgsour morello cherries
- fresh or frozen, stoned
- 3 tablespoonssugar, or to taste
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoonspomegranate molasses
- a pinch of salt
- 50 gbutter
To serve
- flatbread, cut into squares
- 50 gpine nuts, toasted
- a handful of parsley, chopped
- a little cherry syrup
Directions
- Grate the onion on a coarse grater. Put it in a sieve and press it firmly. Squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Onion juice makes the mince too wet. Put the minced lamb in a large bowl. Add the drained grated onion to it.
- Add all the ground spices and the salt. Add the chopped parsley and black pepper. Knead the mixture hard with your hands. Work it for a good five minutes. It should become sticky and cohesive.
- Cover the bowl and chill it for an hour. Rolling them takes a little time. Roll the mixture into small balls. Aim for about the size of a walnut. Keep them all a similar even size. Heat a little butter in a wide pan. Brown the meatballs in batches.
- Turn them to colour all sides. Give each batch about five minutes. Set them aside as each batch is done. Stone the cherries with a stoner or a knife. Keep any juice that comes out of them. Do not thaw them before cooking. Put them into the pan still frozen. Melt the butter in a wide heavy pan.
- Add the stoned cherries and their juice. Cook them over a medium heat steadily. Let them collapse and release their liquid. Give them about fifteen minutes. Let the liquid boil and reduce down. Stir it regularly so it does not catch. It should thicken to a loose jam.
- Taste the sauce as it reduces. Add sugar a spoonful at a time. It should stay clearly sour overall. Add lemon juice if it has gone too sweet. Stir in the pomegranate molasses. Add a pinch of salt to the sauce. Return the browned meatballs to the pan.
- Turn them gently in the cherry sauce. Cover it and lower the heat right down. Let it simmer very gently indeed. Give it about twenty minutes to cook. Cut the flatbread into small squares. Toast them briefly under a grill. They should be crisp but not hard.
- Lay the crisp bread squares out first. Spoon the meatballs and sauce over them. Let the sauce soak into the bread. Scatter toasted pine nuts over the top. Scatter chopped parsley over it as well. It keeps two days refrigerated. Assemble it on the bread only at the last moment.
Technique
- These are sour cherries, morello and similar varieties, not sweet dessert cherries, which give a cloying flat result; the sauce needs real sharpness against the lamb, and it should taste sour first with the sweetness coming behind, since too much sugar turns it into a dessert sauce.
- The mince is kneaded hard for a good five minutes to develop the protein that binds the balls, since no breadcrumb or egg is used; under-kneaded mixture falls apart in the sauce, and the grated onion must be squeezed dry or the mixture will be too wet to hold a ball.
- Aleppo has one of the oldest cooking traditions in the region and is known for sweet and sour combinations in savoury dishes; the city was severely damaged in the Syrian war, much of the old city destroyed and many who cooked these dishes displaced, so it is now cooked widely in the diaspora.
Substitutions
- Frozen sour cherries work well and go into the pan still frozen.
- Dried sour cherries or cherry paste carry the dish out of season.
Variations
- Some cooks add pomegranate molasses and others rely on the cherries alone.
- The bread base is toasted in some kitchens and fried in butter in others.
- Pine nuts are scattered over in almost every version.
History
Aleppo dish of small meatballs in sour cherry sauce, made when the local morello cherries ripen.
Frequently asked questions
What is Kebab karaz?
Kebab karaz is a main from Syria: aleppo meatballs simmered with sour cherries, served on flatbread. Aleppo dish of small meatballs in sour cherry sauce, made when the local morello cherries ripen.
How long does Kebab karaz take to make?
Kebab karaz takes 45 minutes of preparation and 1 hour of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated medium to make.
What can I substitute in Kebab karaz?
Yes, within limits. Frozen sour cherries work well and go into the pan still frozen. Dried sour cherries or cherry paste carry the dish out of season.
What is the most important thing to get right in Kebab karaz?
Turn them to colour all sides. Give each batch about five minutes. Set them aside as each batch is done. Stone the cherries with a stoner or a knife. Keep any juice that comes out of them. Do not thaw them before cooking. Put them into the pan still frozen. Melt the butter in a wide heavy pan.
