Kebabs or goolas as we call them was a favourite my gran would always make for my uncle.

I can still remember how she put be standing at the stove, busy making it in her frying pan for him who would be sitting at the bench at the kitchen table with his massive glass of coke.

Unfortunately she never wrote down the recipe and I have no idea what happened to that pan of hers, it was cast iron and all the food she made in that pot always tasted different.

I make goolas every now and then, but they never taste the same.

I came across this recipe in Naqiyah’s cook book and it reminded me so much of my gran and our family.

Most of the meals in her recipe book are very close to home, my Gran was a muslim who married an Indian and like Naqiyah, my gran tried to find recipes that could accommodate both sets of taste buds.

I don’t know that much about my grans early years of cooking, the only stories I hear are those from my mother and late Uncle. On the Wednesday before he passed on, he was phoning and asking me to look through ma’s cookbooks to see if I had her ladube recipe because he was lissing for it. I was so busy with all the last minute work things before closing for 3 months that I told him I would make it later. Strange how later never came around hey. I do regret not making it for him when he asked. I still have not come across the ladube recipe, but what I do know is that it is a Indian recipe that my great grandmother used to make it for my grandfather and my grandfather taught my gran who made it for her family. The internet says it is a pheasant dish. Maybe I will eventually make it.

When I was busy making these kebabs, I was taken right back to my gran’s kitchen.

The recipe is simple and super easy, with basic pantry ingredients and the other upside to this recipe is that it only uses 500g mince and you can yield so many meat balls which is perfect especially during lock down.

Ingredients:

• 500g x mince.
• 2 x tbsp. ginger garlic paste.
• 1 x bunch coriander, finely chopped.
• 3 x sprigs mint, finely chopped.
• 1 x tsp salt.
• 6 x green chillies, finely chopped.
• 1 x tbsp. masala.
• 1 x egg, beaen.
• 1 x tbsp. olive oil.

Method:

• Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
• Using an ice cream scoop, shape the mixture into balls.
• Place on a baking sheet, cover with cling film.
• Pop into the fridge to chill for an hour.
• Before adding to the chutney, shallow fry the kebabs till lightly browned all over.

Ingredients for chutney:

• 100ml x olive oil.
• 1 x onion, finely chopped.
• 1 x tbsp. ginger garlic paste.
• ¼ x tsp turmeric powder.
• 4 x chillies, sliced.
• 1/2 x tbsp. chilli powder.
• 1 x tin crushed tomatoes
• ½ x tsp salt.
• Coriander to garnish.

Method:

• Heat oil in a pot.
• Add the onions and salt, give it a good stir and allow to cook till the onions are soft and transparent.
• Add the tomatoes, cover and cook till tomatoes have released their water.
• Add the ginger garlic paste and spices.
• Give it a good stir and you may add a little more to create a nice gravy.
• Allow the mixture to come to the boil.
• Add the fried meat balls.
• Cover and cook till the gravy has thickened.
• Garnish with chopped coriander.