Grilled Lamb Kofte & Safran Pilaf

Last weekend was three days weekend for Independence day. We did lots of fun activities but one of the thing we have to do during Independence weekend is BBQ.  Instead of regular hamburger and hot dog, we decided to have Middle Eastern BBQ with Lamb Kofte (Ground Lamb kebab). I mixed lots of cilantro, mint, garlic, onion and ginger with ground lamb and add some kebab spice mix. Also, corn is cheap in summer so we grilled corn. 

I love this ground lamb kebab. Ever time I go to Middle Eastern restaurant, I order this dish. I thought I didn't like lamb too much but with herbs and spices, I realized that I love Lamb. I think normally, you add parsley instead of cilantro but I had a bunch of cilantro in my fridge so I used that. It came out really good. The only thing is that it is quite difficult to grill. When we try to flip it over, some of the meat fall off the skewers. I wonder if there is any good way to avoid this. 

When it is done grilling, I sprinkle more cilantro on top with some sumac. I love sprinkle sumac on some meat. It has some lemony taste to it. 

I also made some rice to eat with. This is called "Zarda Pulao" from India. I made this rice before and loved it so I decided to make it again. (Click here for the previous post about Zarda Pulao.)

This pilaf has nuts, dried currant, Cinnamon, cardamon, saffron and some other spices and it is very very tasty. It was supposed to be really sweet but I didn't want to make it too sweet so I cut the sugar amount to 1/3 of what it required in the recipe. 

I made Lamb Kofte a bit spicy so this sweet rice was perfect with the spicy Lamb. Also, the corn was really sweet and crisp. The meal was so good, it was so difficult to stop eating.

After the dinner, we went to our neighbour's place and watched Independence day fireworks on TV. There are some people doing fireworks in neighborhood also. I thought fireworks are illegal here in NY. I wonder how people get fireworks. Do they go all the way to different state to buy them? Anyway, fireworks on TV was beautiful and we had a great time. 

By the way, did anyone watched World Cup on Saturday? Germany did pretty well on that game. My husband and I went to a local pub to cheer Germany with some other Germans. It was very exciting and lot of fun! I hope they will do well again on Wednesday.