Seekh Kebabs

The next dish for our Week 5 Indian cooking class. At the top of our recipe, our tutor wrote:

Kebabs are an important class of meat preparation.  They are prepared from minced meat.  Cooking it for too long, however, makes it tough.

Ingredients: 
500g minced lamb or beef
2 Tbsp crushed ginger (I used garlic instead of ginger)
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp chilli powder (optional)
4 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
2 tsp garam masala
2 Tbsp coriander or parsley, finely chopped
1 green chilli, finely chopped (optional)
1 egg
1 tsp oil (to grease the tray and hands)
10-12 wooden or steel skewers
a pinch of red/orange food colouring (optional) - this is a powdered colouring, and it makes the kebabs a nice reddy colour, instead of that murky brown/grey look that cooked mince has!
Tin foil (for cooking with)

Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients with the mince in a mixing bowl.  Add the chopped coriander/parsley and chilli to mince.  Grease the oven grid and keep aside.  Mix well and divide into equal parts and roll them with greased palm and fingers on wet skewers.  Place the skewers in the greased grid.
2. Fill the oven tray with hot water and keep the grid on top.  Place the skewers on the grid and cover it with aluminium foil.  Roast them in the oven for about 8 minutes on 200ºC, and then turn them over and roast for another 7 minutes or until cooked.

Serve hot with freshly cut salad of lettuce, onions, tomatoes and celery.  Kebabs can also be served with onions and cumin seed rice.