Week 5: Braised Pomegranate Beef Kebabs

This week I decided to try and make a food more unique than ones I have made in the past by incorporating different parts of recipes into one food. I have always loved Kebabs as a child,  I also loved another food called Fisingoon (a Persian dish with chicken, crushed walnuts, and pomegranate sauce). I decided to try and combine the 2 together and make a new dish of Pomegranate Walnut Beef Kebabs while also incorporating the braising process.

Ingredients: 

1 Whole white Onions
1 pound ground beef
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon pepper
3 teaspoons turmeric powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 small sized piece of ginger
2 cups pomegranate sauce
1/3 cup rosewater
1/4 cup olive oil

Procedure: 

The first step to start this was to make the kebabs. I first started out by taking the the onion and ginger (after cleaning off the skin) and grinding it into almost a paste like texture. I did this to both bring out the max flavor of the ingredients but also to help keep the structure of the kebabs better with cooking. I then took the ground beef and mixed it together thoroughly with the onion ginger paste. I then proceeded to add all the seasoning and spices to it as well and mix it again until it all seemed evenly distributed. I set aside the beef and started to work on the sauce. I simple mixed all the liquids (pomegranate sauce, rose water and olive oil) together and mixed it thoroughly until the the mixture was incorporated together as much as possible, I then put the mixture and added it to a pyrex tray and put it over the oven and let it heat up under low-medium heat. I then took some bamboo sticks and added the ground beef mixture to the stick (a good trick I learned from my mom was to wet your hands with water so the beef doesn't stick to your hand and break the mold you made on the stick). I then took the beef stick and cooked them for about 30 seconds on high heat. I did not want to cook the stick in the heat, only that is gets have the "crust" or sear it it if you will so it will hold the structure better while it cooks and not fall apart. As soon as I did this I added the beef stick to the sauce, and quickly braised the sauce over the beef to absorb the sauce and flavor as much as possible. After I had cooked all the beef sticks and added it to the sauce I let the beef sit on the oven and cook for about 10 minutes making sure to braise it every 30 seconds to minute. I then took the tray and put it in the oven to let the beef fully cook. I sent the temp to about 200 F and let them cook for about 25 minutes (or until the level you like your meat cooked)  making sure to braise them every minute. 

Final thoughts: 

Overall I was very satisfied with the result and it turned out a lot better then I had envisioned it would. When I first told my mom I was going and try to mix Kebab and Fisingoon together she didn't think it would work out because the sour flavor fisingoon is known for wont well with beef as it does with chicken. I took this into account and adjusted the ratios of the sauce mixture making sure not to put too much of the pomegranate sauce in there as to not make it too sour or fruity. I did also add a few extra spices such as turmeric to help with the flavor and chili powder mostly because I like spicy food. When I took the first bite of the the kebab I thought I may had made a mistake and added too much pomegranate sauce but as I continued to eat it more I realized it was actually very flavorful (I think I bit into a part the pomegranate sauce was very concentrated). I even had my mom come over and try some and even she admitted it turned out really well and a lot better then she would have thought it would. Though that all being said there is one thing I wish I could have done differently in the recipe to make it better. In fisingoon they incorporate ground walnuts into sauce as it works well with the pomegranate sauce, my plan for the walnut however was to actually add it to the ground beef and cook in there with it to give the beef a more earthly flavor. The sole reason I did not do this was because I did not have walnuts available and had completely forgotten about them in the fisingoon recipe. I hope the next time I make this dish, which I most definitely will, I can add ground walnuts to the beef mixture and see how it impacts the flavor. The dish as it stands right not however I very much enjoyed and was satisfied with.