Tas Kebab
Mar 31st, 2012 | By Peter Minakis | Category: Beef, Featured, Greek, Herbs, Lamb, Main, Onions, Sauce, Slow Cooking
From the name “Tas Kebab”, it’s easy to state this isn’t a Greek-specific dish – a dish enjoyed in the Levant and its made it’s way to the Greek table via Asia Minor Greeks who resettled in mainland Greece over time. Traditionally Tas Kebab is made with lamb but I’ve often seen beef used in this dish.
Easter is almost upon us and Tas Kebab is a wonderful dish to make with that gnarly, tougher cut of lamb shoulder. The closest beef equivalent would be chuck – both types meat with muscle and fat and benefiting from a slow-cooking process. The sauce turns reddish-brown from the meat which also absorbs the onion, tomato and flavour of the spices.
I like cutting the meat into smaller cubes so that I get more flavour out of each bite from the browning step at the beginning. The meat short be fork-tender and sauce thick. The aroma in your kitchen will have you tasting the sauce as the allspice and bay leaves waft through the air. A rice pilaf works well as a side or a garlic-mashed potato as I’ve offered here.
Tas Kebab (Τας Κεμπάπ)
(serves 4)
1 kg. of lamb shoulder (or chuck beef) cut into small cubes
fine sea salt and fresh ground pepper
all-purpose flour
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large onions, passed through a box grater
1 carrot, peeled and passed through a box grater
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 Tbsp. sweet paprika
3 bay leaves
2-3 dried chillis
5-6 allspice berries
2 cups grated fresh tomatoes (or canned)
2 cups hot water
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp. dried Greek oregano
- Rinse your meat and pat-dry. Season with salt and pepper and lightly dredge in flour then place your skillet on medium-high heat. Add the oil and once hot, add the meat in batches and brown on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the grated onions, paprika, peppers, carrots and sweat while stirring, lifting any brown bits for about 6-7 minutes. Now add the tomato sauce, water, bay and all spice berries and bring up to a boil.
- Now add the reserved meat and once aboil, add some salt and pepper and slightly cover and simmer over medium-low heat for about 90 minutes. Remove the lid, taste and adjust seasoning and simmer uncovered until the sauce is thick and meat is fork-tender (about another 10-15 minutes.
- Serve with a garlic-mashed potatoes and pair with an Alpha Estate Axia Red.
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
© 2012, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.
It sounds flavourful and hearty Peter, the last hurrah of winter and warm foods.
That is a mighty scrumptious dish! Really mouthwatering and tasty looking.
Cheers,
Rosa
allspice. ok, that sounds divine.
that browned garlic-mashed potatoes is what has me drooling.
You manage to make even a gnarly piece of meat look tempting.
Warming and wonderful. :)
Kalimera Peter! Yperoxo fagaki kai to exeis mageirepsei polu meraklidika!
i made your tas kekeb this week and it was delicious..it will be a regular at our house now..thanks..jane
i made your tas kebab this week and it was really delicious..it will be a regular dish at our house from now on..thanks..jane
Oh wow, this looks so amazing!
Wow, this looks so amazing. I will definitely have to try this one!
Can you put this in the crockpot? And what if you don’t have allspice berries? Can you just use the powder? We live near detroit and this is our favorite disk at the restaurants in greek town
Julie, you could put this in a crockpot but you won’t get the same texture on the outside of the meat. You may also use ground allspice.