Name: Silk Road Kebab (Barra Kabab)
Yield: Serves 6 to 8
Cuisine: Uzbekistan
Ingredients: 2 ripe tomatoes, sliced; 1 teaspoon freshly ground black or white pepper; 2 pounds lean lamb, cut into 1-inch cubes; 2 to 3 medium onions, minced; 4 ounces lamb fat, cut into small chunks (optional); 1 large sweet onion, cut lengthwise in half and thinly sliced; 1 teaspoon cumin seed, crushed; 1 European cucumber, thinly sliced Salt; Chopped fresh mint or crumbled dry mint; 2 teaspoons coriander seed, dry-roasted and ground; 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, rendered lamb fat (see Note), or melted butter (plus extra oil or butter for brushing if not using the optional fat); 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (see Note)

Preparation info

Serves
6 to 8

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Seductions of Rice

By Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Published 1998

About

Shakrazabs is a small town southeast of Samarkand in Uzbekistan. At first glance dusty and ordinary, it in fact has a lively market as well as several beautiful remnants of an earlier, glorious era of Uzbek history. Tamerlane the Conquerer built a large caravanserai here at the end of the fourteenth century; its ruins are still awe-inspiring, with their turquoise tiles and soaring flocks of pigeons.

Late one afternoon I arrived in Shakrazabs and hurried out to see the caravanserai.