In theory, I love the fact that my apartment has a balcony. The problem is that I can't put a big, fat grill on it. How do I make do? Occasionally with my panini press (featured in my first blog entry), but more often than not with my double-wide grill pan. And some aluminum foil.
In this post, I am sharing with you two of my favorite summer grill specialties (without the fancy schmancy grill). By the title of this blog post, I'm sure you have gathered that one of these little pieces of heaven is the lamb kebab. Yes, I cooked with lamb in my last blog post. And yes, it was delicious. Which is why I'm cooking with it again.
Oh, and I should also mention the fact that lamb is the traditional meat used in kebabs. "Kebab" is actually a Persian word, but it is used to reference a plethora of Middle Eastern dishes. In the United States, the term "kebab" generally refers to the shish kebab, aka delicious meat (and sometimes vegetables) on a stick. "Shish" is of Turkish decent and essentially means "skewer." Check out Wikipedia for some more undocumented history and interesting facts, including that the world's largest shashlik (a shish kebab variety) was approximately 394 feet long: "called the Shashlik of Friendship, it was cooked in April 2009 in Cherkessk, Russia. It took approximately 400 kg of meat to produce this shashlik." In terms of length, my kebabs pale in comparison. But I bet mine were much tastier.
I also cooked up some grilled nectarines. Nectarines, you say? Yes. You can do more than just pull the sticker off, rinse, and bite. You can grill them and stuff them with cheese. And let's face it, most things are better when stuffed with cheese. Check out what Wikipedia had to say about nectarines (a smooth-skinned peach variation): "The scientific name persica, along with the word 'peach' itself and its cognates in many European languages, derives from an early European belief that peaches were native to Persia. The modern botanical consensus is that they originate in China, and were introduced to Persia and the Mediterranean region along the Silk Road before Christian times." I'm (pretty much) following my Persian theme. Just ignore my former post about blue cheese...(OK, OK, Georgia peaches and good ol' American grilling...I'll tag this as American food, as well...)
Ingredients (for 2-4 people, depends on how hungry you are...makes about 8 kebabs):
- Nectarines (one per person)
- Small container of blue cheese crumbles (3-4 tbs. per nectarine)
- Butter (one tbs. per nectarine)
- 1 lb. boneless leg of lamb
- 2 tbs. minced garlic
- 1 tsp. ground coriander
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 1 large red bell pepper
- 1 red onion
- Wooden skewers (they look like long toothpicks and are super affordable)
Refrigerate for 2-4 hours. At the tail end of your marinating time, you should go ahead and chop up the bell pepper and red onion into chunky pieces.
Then you should start working on the nectarines. I highly recommend grilling them, and then giving into the temptation of eating them before/while you start cooking the lamb. Heat up a grill pan or mini grill or the REAL THING to medium heat. Cut your nectarines in half and remove the seeds. You may want to scrape out the middle of the nectarine halves a bit so that you can eventually fit more cheese. More cheese, you say? Okay, clearly you should do this.
In your microwave, melt a tablespoon of butter per nectarine (1 tbs. for two nectarine halves). Brush half of the melted butter on the fleshy side and then place the fleshy side face down on the grill and brush the skin side with the rest of the melted butter.
Grill for five minutes and then turn over.
Sprinkle blue cheese (about 1-2 tbs. per half) on top of the nectarines--blue cheese crumbles should fit nicely in the middle where the seed was formerly located. Grill for another five minutes so the cheese starts to melt. Then don't hold yourself back and immediately chow down.
As you are eating, you should probably start cooking your lamb. Turn up the heat on your grill pan to medium-high. Pull out your wooden skewers and alternately thread lamb chunks, peppers, and onions. There is no right way to do this--just do it.
After threading, grab some more olive oil and lightly brush your kebabs. Sprinkle with a bit more salt and some ground black pepper. Then throw them on the grill!
I recommend covering them with a sheet of aluminum foil if you are cooking on a grill pan (this way, the heat doesn't escape and they cook more evenly). Make sure you turn them occasionally--it should take about 8-10 minutes for medium-rare meat.
Feel free to cut through a piece to make sure you have cooked your kebabs to your desired doneness. بفرمایید (Berma’id, or "Enjoy!" in Farsi)!
No comments:
Post a Comment