KEBABS - Summer 2022 (Jul-Sept) Dish of the Quarter

Clearly you HOs have grilling on the brain, because KEBABS were our big winner for this quarter’s DOTQ. Thank you all for your participation - let’s get those skewers out!

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I’m making chicken souvlaki tonight - I’ve made this twice so far this season! Very flexible, very delicious. I prefer ch breast.

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Love souvlaki when I eat it, but somehow always forget about it in terms of cooking at home!

How do you prevent chicken breast from drying out as a kabab? Even when I use a yogurt marinade it’s always borderline…

I grill four minutes each side. I don’t know, they just never get dry at all!

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Yeah, I’m likely just overcooking for fear of raw chicken in the middle.

I have a thermoworks thermometer and always test the chicken - for me, 4 min on each side on a pretty high gas grill gets it to 165.

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I already make pork or lamb souvlaki once a month, so I will experiment with other kebabs.

I also like this recipe a lot.

I’ve been making these shrimp skewers since the recipe was published in 2005.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bonappetit.com/recipe/spicy-grilled-shrimp/amp

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Adapting these tonight

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Would love to hear how they work out for you and what tweaks, if any, you make.

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Will do.

In Athens and the Peloponnese, pork souvlaki is called kalamaki, and it’s got an even more basic recipe.
Lemon, oregano, salt and pepper. I have good memories of ordering it in the summer of 2004.

I was poking around some online regional pork souvlaki recipes from Crete and Cyprus to see if herbs other than rosemary, oregano and thyme were used.

I also looked up Serb and Croatian raznici recipes, which seem to use Bay leaf.

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I need to somehow remember that rhubarb sauce for next spring!

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I am going to sub blackcurrants for rhubarb, and see how it turns out. It should be a little like a quick Cumberland Sauce with mint and ginger.

Cumberland Sauce is nice with camembert fritters, so I’m thinking the original rhubarb sauce or a black currant adaptation, would be nice with halloumi skewers, or with nut cheese skewers - it a grillable / skewerable nut cheese exists.

It’s interesting how Adjika seems to encompass so many different versions.

The one I made from Kachka wasn’t a wet salsa-like condiment, but more of a thick, intensely flavored paste.

It was a good accompaniment to kababs (including the lyulya and shashlik also from the book)

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I had some chicken thighs begging for a kebab treatment tonight, as well as lots of fresh basil, so I went with an Italian theme. Let’s call them spiedini!

I made an antipasto-flavored marinade (actual more of a paste) by grinding up garlic, green olives, herbs and pancetta (a trick I learned from ATK to maximize crispy bits), plus a little red wine vinegar and mayo (my other favorite trick for marinades - keeps the marinade on the meat and contributes to excellent browning). 4 minutes per side on my stove top griddle. Fabulously juicy. The overall flavor was delicious but not strongly olive-y or porky - everything mellowed into balance. Would happily repeat.

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Beautiful

I was happy to see kebabs chosen as DOTQ. Grilled-meat-and-veg is our favorite summer go-to, often in the form of kebabs.

WFD tonight was grilled, Japanese-style NY strip kebabs with mushrooms and sweet peppers. The garlic-soy beef marinade recipe, which I resort to often, came from The Japanese Grill, by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat. You can find it online here. It was my favorite recipe from the cookbook, and the only one which I continue making year after year.

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Turkish chicken kebabs.

I don’t recall the origin of this marinade, and thus have no understanding of why it is called “Turkish”. I just know I’ve made it for years and we like it. The kebabs always come out tender and juicy.

The following amount is for 3 boneless-skinless chicken thighs cut into roughly 1” pieces:

¼ c. olive oil
¼ c. dry white wine
1 T. lemon juice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 t. dried oregano
¾ t. sweet paprika
½ t. dried marjoram

Marinade the chicken pieces, stirring occasionally, for no more than 2 hours. Salt and pepper the kebabs well just before grilling.

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It was a full-on summertime meal tonight.

Greek Lemon-Oregano-Thyme Chicken Kebabs (I used chicken thigh meat skinned and cut from the bone) with onions and red bell peppers, all grilled on the grill pan.

Served on Near East rice pilaf with homemade tzaziki sauce alongside, as well as localish (southern NH) COTC, of which 2 were microwaved for dinner. The remaining 10 ears will be cut off the cobs for freezing (both corn kernels and cobs for future corn stock). I’ll probably buy more before the season is done to stock my freezer with fresh corn.

Wine.

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