Lula Kebab

Hubby and I decided to have a get together with his side of the family for Father's day this Saturday, instead of the Father's day Sunday. And I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what to make. I finally decided on grilling up some kabobs. I've been asked to feature lula kebabs on this blog a while ago, but never got around to it. I normally just buy the seasoned ground meat at a local Armenian store and grill them at home whenever I had a craving for kebabs. But I have always wondered how to make them. So I searched online for a good recipe. There wasn't many recipes for lula kebabs, but I managed to find this recipe from myrecipes.com. I wanted to do a trial run before I serve it on Saturday, so I gave it a try for dinner tonight.

You can use any type of ground meat for this recipe: beef, chicken, turkey or lamb. I happened to use turkey tonight. But a word of caution if you do decide to use turkey - because turkey is so lean, the final product will be dry. I didn't mind it this time, because this was a trial run. But I'll probably be using ground beef for the get-together. The flavors came out really well on this recipe. Maybe I won't have to go to the Armenian market for my kebab fix.

3 lbs. ground meat

1 large onion, finely chopped (about 2 cups)

1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh mint leaves

1 large egg

2 tsp. ground cumin

1 Tbsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper

2 Tbsp. tomato paste

juice of half a lemon

1) Line a baking sheet with wax/parchment paper. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Using your hands, mix just until combined. Over mixing may cause the meat to be tough.

2) Gently form meat into 8-inch logs around skewers (Note: if using bamboo skewers, be sure to soak skewers in water for an hour before using to prevent burning. Another tip is to use 2 skewers for better stability for the kebabs). Place kebabs on the baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes before grilling.

3) Grill kebabs on a hot grill for about 8 minutes, turning twice, until grill marks appear and meat is firm to the touch.