Chelo Kabab—Peter Cat Favourite—Tehdig, Jujeh/Chicken and Koobideh/lamb keema Kabab—Pujo Special

Chelo kabab, to any Calcuttan, is a dish served at Peter Cat—the 70’s restaurant on Park Street that doesn’t accept reservations, and always has a crowd of people waiting outside for a table. When they manage to get that coveted table, chances are, half of them are going to order a Chelo Kabab. Peter Cat may call the Chelo kabab “THE PROTECTED REGIONAL PRODUCT OF WEST BENGAL”, but Chelo Kabab happens to be an Iranian dish comprising chelo (fragrant rice) and kabab (barbecued meats). Our recipe shows two types of kababs—jujeh or chicken kabab and koobideh or minced lamb kabab served with buttered saffron rice (chelo), roasted tomatoes, onions, capsicum, a fried egg and last but not the least the crunchy delicious rice crust or tehdig/tah-dig.

For this festive video we wanted to recreate Calcutta Peter Cat’s
famous chelo kabab. But when researching this recipe, we fell down the rabbithole that is the world of Persian cuisine—so we figured why not make chelo kabab, Iran’s “national dish”, the way it would be made Iran. The main source for these recipes is Najmeih Batmanglij tome on Iranian cooking—Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies. The spices used are more subtle than what we associate with kababs in Mughlai cuisine.
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SOURCES:

Serious Eats, Sausage and Science of Salt: https://slice.seriouseats.com/2011/09/the-pizza-lab-why-does-sausage-need-to-be-salty.html

Serious Eats, Adana Kabab: https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/08/the-food-lab-how-to-make-turkish-adana-kebabs.html

Bon Appétit: https://youtu.be/Pa3ao2TVn1A

Munchies Episode on Iran: https://youtu.be/KUUdBqhGZlk

Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown, Iran Episode (S04E06)

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MUSIC
“Le petit fille de la mer , Vangelis” by Ali Choolaei and “Si Tu Vois Ma Mère (Tar Version)” by Ali Choolaei: https://soundcloud.com/ali-choolaei

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