Kafta Skewers: Ground Beef and Parsley, Seven Spice and a Little Heat

Why texture is everything

Kafta is the everyday Lebanese kebab: ground beef worked with grated onion and a great deal of parsley, seasoned with baharat, pressed onto skewers over fire. The seasoning is simple, so the texture is everything. Two things decide it: squeezing the water out of the onion, and not overworking the meat.

Quick facts

• Serves: 4
• Prep: 20 minutes
• Chill: 30 minutes
• Cook: 10 minutes

What you'll need from the spice rack

• Baharat Seven Spices: the seasoning. The backbone of the dish.
• Aleppo Pepper: warmth through the meat, and a scatter at the end.
• Fleur de Sel: finishing off the heat.

Ingredients

• 1 lb (450 g) ground beef, 80/20, or half beef and half lamb
• 1 small yellow onion, grated on the coarse side of a box grater
• 1 cup flat-leaf parsley, very finely chopped, packed
• 2 tsp Baharat Seven Spices
• 1 tsp Aleppo Pepper, plus more to finish
• 1 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• Fleur de Sel, to finish

To serve

• Warm flatbread
• Grilled tomato and onion
• Toum
• A lemon wedge

Method

1. Squeeze the onion. Grate it, then wring it out hard in a clean towel or fine sieve. Wet onion makes kafta slump off the skewer and steam rather than sear. Do not skip this.
2. Mix, briefly. Combine the beef, squeezed onion, parsley, Baharat Seven Spices, Aleppo Pepper and salt. Work it by hand just until evenly blended, about 30 seconds. Overworking turns the texture springy.
3. Chill. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Cold meat holds its shape on the skewer.
4. Shape. Divide into 8. Press each around a flat metal skewer into a sausage roughly 5 inches long and 1 inch thick, squeezing gently so it grips. Flat skewers hold far better than round. Wet your hands if it sticks.
5. Cook hot. Grill over direct high heat, or broil on a rack set over a foil-lined pan on the highest oven rack. About 4 to 5 minutes per side, turning once, until well browned outside and just cooked through.
6. Finish. Slide off the skewers onto warm flatbread so the bread takes the juices. Scatter with Fleur de Sel and a little more Aleppo Pepper. Serve with a lemon wedge and toum.

Notes and swaps

• No skewers? Shape the mixture into flat oval patties and cook them in a hot cast-iron skillet. Same seasoning, same result, less ceremony.
• The parsley is an ingredient, not a garnish. A full packed cup to a pound of meat sounds like a lot and is correct.
• Aleppo pepper is mild. It reads as fruity warmth rather than sharp heat, so a full teaspoon through a pound of meat is gentle. Add half a teaspoon more if you want it forward.
• Fleur de Sel goes on at the end, off the heat. Its whole point is the crunch, which dissolves if you cook with it.
• Make ahead: the raw mixture keeps a day in the fridge and freezes well, shaped or loose.

More from the spice rack

This recipe calls for Baharat Seven Spices, Aleppo Pepper and Fleur de Sel from Beirut Spice Co., sourced from Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.