Fridays of Intestinal Fortitude: The Kabob Edition

Note: Fridays of Intestinal Fortitude is a weekly feature about food, food and more FOOD. No, I do not necessarily want to be a food blogger, but I do LOVE to talk about food prep, cooking food, eating food and making sweet love to food. Okay, maybe not the "sweet love" part. This is not meant to be some homage to 91/2 Weeks.

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In America, we honor our servicemen by grilling hunks, skewers and slabs of meat on an open flame and then cracking open a tall, cold one.

Or something like that.

In last week's Intestinal Fortitude post, I wrote about how I don't get to do beef much any longer - the comments of that post got me to thinking about moral choices when it comes to food.  I am still twisting my brain around that and will have a follow-up post at some point.  But not today. Instead, this week, I thought it would be fun to share two of my favorite kabob recipes. These recipes are from an auntie long, long ago.  Also, all of these are awesome served with the cumin-based raita recipe I've included at the end -- I've been making the raita for so long that at this point, I have no idea to whom I should credit!

Man, I really miss beef, sometimes.

What's your favorite grilling or kabob recipe?  Feel free to share recipes/tips/hints in the comments or link to your own post. If anything I have learned over the years is that there is rarely ONE way to make anything.

Besides, I am always looking for new ideas.  Aren't we all??

Boti Kabob
Ingredients
2 lbs. undercut beef
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground green chilis
2 cups plain yogurt (I use Greek)
1 tsp minced garlic
Salt to taste

Preparation
Cut the beef into small cubes.  Add the spices to the yogurt and marinate the meat cubes in the mixture for 3-4 hours (I put everything into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag.)  Pierce the cubes on a skewer and grill until golden brown.  Serve with wedges of lemon. (Note: you could also include veggies on the skewers with the meat.  I LOVE roma tomatoes with these.)
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Seekh Kabob
Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
2 tbsp yogurt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
Salt to taste
A pinch of cinnamon

Preparation
Mix all ingredients well.  Grease skewers and mold the meat mixture into sausage shapes around the skewers and broil until brown.  Serve with sliced tomatoes and rings of onions.
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My Favorite Raita Recipe
Ingredients
2 cups of yogurt
2 tablespoon finely minced onion
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
Preparation
Mix ingredients together and let sit for at least 30 minutes.