Kashmiri Shaami Kebab (Raisin-Stuffed Lamb Patties)

I picked up a pound of ground lamb on sale a few weeks back and it's been sitting in the freezer waiting for me to come up with something to do with it. This saucy stuffed lamb patty curry sounded delicious and was actually much easier to put together than I'd feared. A few of the patties came open during cooking, but most of them held their shape well and kept the filling neatly encased.

Kashmiri Shaami Kebab

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

Patties

• 1/2 c. yellow split peas (chana dal)
• 3 c. water
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 c. golden raisins
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 2-3 fresh green Thai, serrano, or finger chilies
• 450g ground lamb
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. Kashmiri garam masala
• 1 Tbsp. oil

Sauce

• 2 Tbsp. mustard oil
• 4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 c. golden raisins
• 400mL diced tomatoes¹
• 1 tsp. fennel seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground Kashmiri chilies
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt

Directions

Patties

1. Rinse the peas very well, then add the water and bring to a boil, uncovered, over medium-high heat.
2. Skim off and discard any foam, then stir in the turmeric and reduce the heat to medium-low.
3. Simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until tender (~30 minutes).
4. Reserve 1 c. of cooking water from the peas.
5. Drain the peas and transfer them to a food processor² and pulse to mince.
6. Transfer the peas to a bowl and add the raisins, cilantro, and chilies to the food processor (or blender) and pulse to mince.³
7. Transfer the raisin mixture to a separate bowl.
8. Add the ground lamb to the bowl with the peas and mix in the salt and garam masala.
9. Take ~2 Tbsp. of the meat mixture and shape it into a flat disc. Place ~1 tsp. of the raisin mixture in the centre of the disc and fold it up over the filling to completely encase it. Shape into a ball and then flatten slightly into a small patty.
10. Repeat the above process with the remaining meat and filling.
11. heat the oil over medium heat.
12. Add a few of the patties and cook for ~5 minutes, flip, and cook for 5 minutes on the other side.
13. Transfer to a plate and repeat with remaining patties.

Sauce

1. Heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the garlic and raisins and stir-fry until the garlic browns a little and the raisins swell (2-4 minutes).
3. Add the tomato, fennel, ginger, chilies, and salt and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally for ~5 minutes.
4. Pour in the reserved cooking water from the split peas and bring to a boil.
5. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens (~5 minutes).
6. Transfer to a blender and purée.
7. Serve the lamb topped with sauce over a substrate of your choice.

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¹ The original recipe called for 1 large tomato. Even a very large tomato is probably going to produce significantly less than 400mL once it's cored and chopped, but I liked the idea of going a bit heavy on the tomatoes and having some extra sauce so I just used the whole tin. ^Back
2 I don't have a food processor, so I just used the "food chop" setting on my blender. The peas were soft enought that they ended up more puréed than minced, but it still seemed to work out fine. ^Back
3 I saved a bit of extra cooking water from the peas and added this as well since the blender was struggling to chop the ingredients without it. ^Back