Kebab Karaz

Ingredients

• 500g minced lamb, around 20 percent fat
• 1 1/4 tsp fine salt, for the meat
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 600g sour morello cherries, fresh or frozen, pitted
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• 30g butter
• 1/2 tsp fine salt, for the sauce
• 2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
• 10g flat-leaf parsley
• 4 flatbreads

Before you cook

• Pit the cherries if they are fresh, keeping any juice that escapes
• Chop the parsley finely
• Tear the flatbreads into large pieces and arrange them across a serving platter

Steps

1. Knead the minced lamb with the salt, pepper, allspice and cinnamon for a full minute, until the mixture turns tacky and holds together.
2. Roll the meat into small balls the size of a large marble, about 24 in total.
3. Melt the butter in a wide frying pan over medium-high heat.
4. Brown the meatballs in a single layer for 5 minutes, turning them, until they are coloured all over but not cooked through.
5. Lift the meatballs onto a plate and leave the fat in the pan.
6. Tip the cherries, sugar and half teaspoon of salt into the same pan.
7. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, crushing about a third of the cherries against the pan as you go, until the fruit breaks down into a thick dark sauce.
8. Stir in the pomegranate molasses and taste, adding more sugar if the cherries are very sharp, so the sauce lands sour first and sweet second.
9. Return the meatballs and any juices from the plate to the pan.
10. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, spooning the sauce over the meatballs, until they are cooked through and glazed and the sauce clings.
11. Spoon the meatballs and sauce over the torn flatbread so the bread soaks up the juices.
12. Scatter over the pine nuts and parsley and serve immediately.