Kabab Koobideh

Kabab koobideh is ground lamb worked by hand with grated onion and salt until it turns sticky enough to cling unaided to a flat metal skewer, then grilled fast over hot charcoal until the outside chars and the inside stays pink and juicy. No breadcrumb, egg or filler holds it together — the meat itself, kneaded long enough to release its own binding protein, does that work. The name comes from koubidan, "to pound," a nod to how the meat used to be worked by hand before mincers existed, and it is the kebab most Iranians mean when they simply say "kabab."

What it really is

A kitchen grinds lamb — sometimes blended with beef for a leaner bite — twice, through a fine plate, then works in grated onion squeezed dry of its juice, salt, black pepper and occasionally a pinch of baking soda, kneading until the mixture is smooth and elastic. Portions get pressed and stretched flat along wide, sword-like skewers, then set close over hot coals and fanned constantly so the fire chars rather than smokes the meat. A cook who rushes the kneading gets meat that falls off the skewer into the coals; getting it right is the whole test of a grill cook's hand.

How it's served

• Almost always as chelo kabab koobideh — the meat laid over steamed saffron rice, never plated alone
• With a whole tomato grilled alongside on its own skewer, split open at the table
• Sumac and a pat of butter set out so guests season the rice and meat themselves

How to write it on the menu

• Name the meat plainly — lamb, beef or a blend read as different orders to a regular, not interchangeable ones
• Say whether rice is included in the price or ordered separately, since it is assumed but not always bundled
• List the grilled tomato as part of the plate, not as a garnish that can be waved off