By: Nejdana Houshyar, Peak Associate

Persian cuisine is known for its intense, colourful flavours. It often uses ingredients such as saffron, dried herbs, fresh meat, and delicate fruits like pomegranate — staples in a Persian household. Each dish is intensely prepared and often takes immense time and patience to complete. But once you have tried and created a proper Persian meal from scratch, you will understand the effort. Chelow kebab is Iran’s national dish. It’s composed of saffron rice and ground beef (or lamb) and is often served with grilled tomatoes and sprinkled with sumac powder, a spice made of dried and ground berries of the sumac bush. The meat can be made on a grill, but if you don’t have a grill, on a simple stove — it is bound to taste delicious either way. This recipe, being homemade, will guide you through the process of making chelow kebab using a stove!

Ingredients:

For the meat:

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1 large or 2 medium-sized onions, grated
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp paprika 
• A pinch of saffron
• Cooking oil

For the rice:

• A pinch of saffron
• ⅓ cup water to activate the saffron
• 2 cups of rice
• About 4 cups of water
• 3–4 tablespoons of butter
• 1 tsp salt

Optional garnishes:

2 tomatoes

Sumac powder 

Instructions: 

Preparing and cooking your saffron rice

1. Wash the rice in a bowl till the water runs clear, then soak it in water for 20 minutes. 
2. After the rice is fully soaked, drain the water.
3. Then add four cups of water and one tablespoon of salt to a pot and dump the rice in. 
4. Bring the rice to a boil over medium-high heat and cover the pot with a lid.
5. Cook for about 15 minutes, or until the water is fully absorbed by the rice.
6. While the rice is cooking, boil some extra water — about ⅓ cup — and put a pinch of saffron in it until dissolved.
7. When the water is absorbed (when the rice finishes cooking), take the rice off the stove and let it steam for 10 minutes with the lid still on.
8. When finished, take some rice and put it in your saffron water, mix it, and then dump it back in the pot.

Making the kebab on a stove

1. In a bowl, mix the ground beef, grated onion, salt, pepper, turmeric, paprika, and saffron.
2. Then, put the meat mix in a pan and flatten it into the shape of the pan — think of it as flattening and rounding pizza dough.
3. Then, grab a spatula and create as many kebab strips in the pan as you like.
4. Put the pan on medium-high heat and add oil.
5. When the meat starts to sizzle, lower the heat and cook for about 15 minutes, or until brown, on each side.
6. At this point, you can add the tomatoes if you would like and let them cook for about seven minutes.
7. When meat is done, serve with rice (and sprinkle sumac powder if you want extra flavour), and enjoy!