The Kuwait Diaries - Part Three Iraqi Kebobs & Hummus

The next day Dan picked up my field pass from KOC. KOC also explained that it would take too long to get Basel his security pass, so Napesco put Basel on a plane flight back to Jordan. Politics. Sigh! It’s too bad, he was a great guy, I liked him. I was really looking forward to working with Basel. I’d love to work with him someday.

Hookah pipe

Basel and I spent the afternoon before he left shopping for trinkets to take home. I bought some gold necklaces and bracelets for my mom, sister, daughter and little nieces. When we were done, we went to this little cafe in the al Kout shopping center.  We had coffee/hot chocolate and they served shisha as well. Shisha is a syrupy tobacco mix smoked in a hookah pipe. They have all different flavors of shisha: orange, apple, grape, guava, lemon, mint as well as some strange ones like white gummy bear (that’s a little racist, no black gummy bear flavor?). Basel smoked the grape flavor. They bring you a couple of plastic tip covers so you can share, Basel asked me if I wanted to give it a go, but I explained I couldn’t. It would be like him eating pork.  However, if I’d known then that there was gummy bear flavor I would have had to try it. Ignorance apparently is a good thing. 

al Kout at sunset

The café proprietor brought the hookah over, covered the pipe bowl, which is loaded with the grape shisha, with a small piece of aluminum foil with five perforations. He returned a few minutes later carrying a basket with hot coals.  Carefully with tongs, he picked up lit coals, which he then placed on the foil above the five holes, which allows the tobacco to heat to the proper temperature without burning. The smoke travels through the cool water in the base, where it filtered out the impurities before it reached Basel.

Al Kout at night

The al Kout shopping center is two wings separated by a huge series of pools that have fountains that play along with music. The restaurants and cafés along the pools have outdoor seating to sit and enjoy the beauty of the music and fountains as they drink their coffee and smoke their shisha.

As it was Basel’s last night in Kuwait, we decided to go out for Basel’s favorite food. We thought to try a promising restaurant we found from a post card that fell out of the newspaper. We flagged down a taxi outside the hotel, but the taxi driver said he knew of a better place and dropped us off at a little hole-in-the-wall place in Fahaheel that had white crenellations like a castle on top. We went in and they put us in a booth where we reclined on the carpet propped up with a couple of big pillows. We ordered a couple of Pepsis (pop in Kuwait comes in these cute little Red Bull-sized cans) and hummus to start, with some kind of a family platter for the main dish. The waiter brought a plastic drop sheet to lie down between us and then brought the hummus and some flatbread. I asked Basel what they called their flatbread over there. Basel just looked at me funny and said, “Flat bread”. I know that sounds like a stupid question, but the Greeks have their pita, the Indians have roti and naan bread, so what the Arabic equivalent? Apparently, khoubz is the Arabic word for bread.

From al Kout looking west

The hummus had olive oil drizzled all over it. We took the flatbread, ripped off a chunk, dipped it into the hummus and olive oil and ate it. Now, I’ve had hummus many times before and wasn’t impressed. It was grainy, dull, rather tasteless and usually a little bitter. I had never liked it before. However, this stuff was amazing. It was delicious, light and airy and not a hint of bitterness. It was so smooth it was like butter. I couldn’t stop eating it.

Next, they brought the platter out. It had Iraqi kebabs, chicken and lamb tikka, grilled chicken, racks of lamb, tomatoes and onions and even some French fries thrown in for some reason. Maybe they thought I needed something that looked like regular food to me. The meal was accompanied by a funny yogurt dip I didn’t like very much and some odd pickles that I think were made with beets and squash, maybe zucchini.

the musical fountains

I asked about the kebab thing, isn’t kebab chunks of meat on a skewer? The Iraqi waiter was quite indignant. “NO! Kebab is kebab; meat on a skewer is tikka! They don’t know what they are talking about. Kebab is our word.” I looked it up, kebab comes from an old Sumerian word that means to burn or cook. They make up this delectable ground beef and lamb mixture that you form around wide skewers that almost look like swords. The fat in the ground lamb becomes liquid in the grilling process, drips off and leaves air pockets that make the kebabs light and fluffy. We broke off pieces of the flatbread, break off a chunk of kebab and then dredge the two in the hummus. It was so delicious. The lamb and chicken tikka was quite good as well. I ate until I was so stuffed I couldn’t move. They packaged the rest up for us and I ate for a couple of days on the remaining food.

Kebab family platter

  
I was so impressed with the kebabs in Kuwait that as soon as I got home, I was searching for recipes. I found one in particular I wanted to try, but finding ground lamb in Edmonton was nearly impossible. I finally found some at Hajar’s Halal Meats on the corner of 113A Street and 134 Avenue. He ground me up some lamb while I waited and then sold me some of his own kebab meat as well. He said next time to give him a call first and he would whip up his special recipe for me that was better than what he had on hand. 


Iraqi Kebabs

Ingredients
2 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground lamb
1 large onion, grated fine
2 small Roma-type tomatoes, chopped fine
½ cup flour
½ cup chopped fresh parsley
3 garlic cloves, minced or 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon salt
½ teaspoon ground pepper
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sumac

Directions
1. Combine ingredients together. Mix well, cover with plastic wrap and leave in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
2. Divide the mixture into 12 portions, and slide each portion onto an inch-wide metal skewer. With moistened hands, press the meat until it is about 8 inches long; make small dents in the meat by pressing between the thumb and index finger.
3. Place skewered meat about 3 inches above the coals. Grill for about 10 minutes, turning to brown on both sides, and fanning most of the time to prevent the fire from flaring and burning the meat. 
4. Once meat is done, remove from grill and sprinkle kebab with sumac. Serve!

*Don't worry about the fat in the meat. The fat particles melt and drip during grilling, leaving behind small cavities, which give kebab its characteristic light texture.

*Alternatively, if you don’t have flat metal skewers, you can also shape the meat into flattened torpedoes and cook right over the grill grid for about 5 minutes per side. If you use an instant-read thermometer to check doneness, the temperature should read 140°F. Remove from the grill and serve immediately.

*If using metal skewers, make sure they are dry and cold before pressing meat onto them. I like using metal skewers with wooden handles because the metal gets very hot. Do not oil the metal skewers, as this will prevent the meat from attaching.

*Keep your hands wet when handling the kebab mixture beef and it will not stick to your hands

*Sumac is a very interesting and exotic spice originating from Turkey. If you are having trouble finding it, you can find it at the Bulk Barn (5 locations in Edmonton). When mixed with water it can be used for the same purposes as lime juice, but will tint everything, including your teeth, purple! I wish I'd know about this in school. It would have made for some great pranks! Triple 0 gelatin capsules, check... sumac, check... inserting the filled capsules inside my sister's showerhead, check...

Hummus

Ingredients

1 16 oz can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

¼ to ½ cup plain yogurt

3 Tablespoons lemon juice

¼ cup tahini (sesame seed puree)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

½ teaspoons sea salt

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons tamari (soy sauce)

pinch of paprika

1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley

Directions

1. Drain chickpeas and rinse.

2. Combine chickpeas and remaining ingredients in blender or food processor. Blend for 3-5 minutes on low until thoroughly mixed and smooth.

3. Place in serving bowl, and create a shallow well in the center of the hummus.

4. Add a small amount (1-2 tablespoons) of olive oil in the well. Garnish with paprika and minced fresh parsley.

5. Serve immediately with fresh, warm or toasted flat bread, or cover and refrigerate.

*For a spicier hummus, add a sliced red chile or a dash of cayenne pepper.