Meat with Cherries

Ingredients

• 1 and a half liters Sour cherry juice
• 4 kg Sour cherries
• 1 kg Finely ground lamb
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Aleppo spice blend
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• half a medium cup, 60 g (or to taste) Sugar
• to taste Parsley
• to taste Pine nuts
• as needed Syrian bread
• a little Ghee
• a little Oil
• a pinch Citric acid
• a handful Pitted sour cherries for garnish and final addition

Instructions

1. Remove the stems from the washed and drained sour cherries, then pit the cherries.
2. Put the pitted sour cherries in a blender and blend until they become juice.
3. Strain the cherry juice through a coarse strainer into a bowl, allowing only a very small amount of pulp to pass through.
4. Put the cherry juice in a pot over the heat and let it simmer gently until it thickens and reduces slightly.
5. Add the sugar to the pot of cherry juice and stir until it dissolves and combines. Taste after a little while and adjust the sweetness to taste.
6. Cut the chilled meat in the kitchen or grind it finely so it is suitable for shaping into kebab.
7. Put the meat in a bowl and season it with salt and Aleppo spice blend, then knead the meat well until it is thoroughly infused with the spices.
8. Grease the oven tray with a little ghee.
9. Shape the meat on the oven tray into fingers or adjacent kebab pieces, as desired.
10. Preheat the oven to its highest temperature, 250°C.
11. Place the kebab tray in the hot oven and leave it until grilled and browned.
12. Light charcoal separately until it is red-hot if you wish to smoke the meat.
13. Mix a little oil with a little ghee in a small bowl for smoking.
14. Remove the kebab from the oven once grilled, then smoke it with charcoal using the method mentioned in the video to give it a grilled flavor.
15. Drop the grilled kebab pieces into the pot of thickened cherry juice over the heat.
16. If desired, add some meat fat or ghee to the pot with the sauce, as mentioned in the video.
17. Leave the kebab in the pot of sauce over the heat for a little while so the meat pieces absorb the cherry sauce.
18. Turn off the heat under the pot, then add a handful of pitted cherries as the final step.
19. If desired, add a pinch of salt to the pot of meat with cherries as the final step to bring out the flavors.
20. Cut the Syrian bread into triangles in the kitchen.
21. Arrange the Syrian bread triangles in a shallow serving platter.
22. Arrange the kebab pieces over the Syrian bread in the serving platter.
23. Pour the cherry sauce over the kebab and bread in the serving platter.
24. Garnish the top with parsley and pine nuts in the serving platter.
25. Sprinkle cinnamon over the top in the serving platter.
26. If desired, sprinkle additional spice over the top, as shown in the video.
27. Serve the meat with cherries hot with Syrian bread.