The 'sultan's' order in any Persian kebab house: one skewer of barg and one of koobideh served together over saffron chelow rice. Not a distinct kebab so much as the maximalist combination plate every Iranian menu lists at the top.
Also known as: soltani, sultani kabab, kabab-e soltani, soltani kabob
Watch it made
Ingredients
- 300 g beef or lamb tenderloin, butterflied into one long 1 cm ribbon (barg)
- 300 g minced lamb, 25% fat (koobideh)
- 2 onions: one juiced, one grated and squeezed
- 0.3 g saffron, ground and bloomed in 30 ml hot water
- 30 g butter, melted
- 1.5 tsp salt, 0.5 tsp pepper
- 300 g basmati rice, cooked as chelow
- 2 tomatoes, grilled whole
- sumac, to dust
How to make it
- 1
Marinate the barg ribbon 4 h in onion juice with half the saffron water and the pepper.
- 2
Knead the mince with the squeezed grated onion and salt until it clings upside-down to your palm, then press onto a wide flat skewer.
- 3
Grill the koobideh over hot coals 6-8 min, flipping every 30 seconds so it never sags.
- 4
Grill the barg 2-3 min a side, brushing with saffron butter.
- 5
Serve both skewers over chelow with grilled tomato, the last saffron butter and a dusting of sumac.
Pro tip: Test one nub of koobideh over the coals first: if it slumps or drops, knead the mixture two more minutes and re-chill before committing the skewer.
