Too hot to have something heavy and bready to cook or to eat. Too. Hot. Can't. Think.Ugh.
What to make for a summer lunch? How about cold Asian noodle salad? Cold noodles may not sound fabulous, but they are cooling--and if you use rice noodles, are not too filling. The perfect complement for light summery veggies. Now mix this one up and enjoy al fresco in the shade. Ahhh. Don't you feel better?
Gather the Goodies
1/2 package pad Thai rice noodle fettuccini. You can substitute other kinds of noodles/pasta. Prepare according to package directions, and then immediately run noodles in cold tap water until the water is cold. This will stop noodles from growing and keep them cool.
Sliced deli ham, shrimp, tofu, chicken--etc. whatever you have on hand Slice into thin strips to match the noodles
Sliced vegetables, such as carrots, summer squash, cucumber, etc. Again, whatever you have on hand. I enjoyed it with carrots and cucumbers.
Japanese ginger pickles, such as kizami--the spicy, dark pink kind. You could substitute other pickles as well--just slice into thin strips as well.
Lettuce, rinsed, drained, and cut into strips
Asian Salad Dressing
3 tablespoons soy sauce 3 tablespoons sugar 3 tablespoons rice vinegar 3 tablespoons chicken stock (or water and salt to taste) 1 teaspoon sesame oil 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (iri goma) You can substitute other chopped nuts, such as peanuts, cashews, or walnuts
Assembling the Salad
Line each salad plate with a base layer of lettuce strips. In a large bowl, mix the drained cold noodles with the other salad ingredients. Whisk the salad dressing in another bowl and pour on the noodle-veggie mixture, tossing to mix. Mound the noodle veggie salad in the center of the plate, distributing the ingredients evenly for a nice presentation.
Not sure what the kind of cooking I do is called--Pan-World Cuisine? Lots of Asian and Indian, but really, all rolled around what's growing in the garden now. The garden TELLS me what to cook. Lately, that's a lot of squash!
Earlier this week, I catered a reception for the Architecture Foundation of Santa Barbara. Small and somewhat swank--with a live band (playing quietly--many neighbors), and a vineyard sponsoring. Here's what I made:
Indonesian satay chicken skewers with satay dipping sauce
Salmon dip with organic carrots and patty-pan squash
Italian deli ham-wrapped melon sticks
Cheese bread twists
Fruit kabobs
Watermelon basket loaded with red grapes and decorated with flowers and lemon slices
Dark chocolate coconut-rum-laced truffles rolled in unsweetened coconut
Shrimp cocktail platters--one with a homemade soy-sesame dip and one with a tomato-based wasabi and smoked paprika dip
I stayed for the first part of the event--just to make sure everyone liked the food. My hubby closed the party down, though, and reported every spare morsel was devoured--all but the watermelon basket itself (contents were eaten). Success! Too bad it was a donation, but I'm not at the pro level.
What to Serve Your Loved Ones When It's Hot Outside
Hot days got you in a daze? Feel like going into the kitchen and firing up the oven? Naaah. Want something refreshing, simple, yet pallet-satisfying for a summer supper? How about a cold soup with a simple garden salad and a loaf of fresh artisanal bread (the chewier, the better)?
You may be imagining cold soups are frou-frou dishes served only in uppity restaurants. Would you even like a cold soup? Wouldn't it be, well, icky? Once you get over the idea of a cold liquid as an entrée, I think you'll find yourself enjoying it.
The loveliest way to serve cold soup is in two concentrically sized bowls: the smaller bowl holds the soup. The larger bowl holds ice, and the smaller soup bowl nestles atop this bed of ice. But you don't have to be that fancy.
I almost forgot to mention—all these soups can be vegetarian (if you substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock). None contain any meat. You do not have to serve meat to have a satiated and happy feeling after eating. But don't mention this lack of meat to your resident carnivores and probably no one will notice.
Here are my favorite savory cold soup suggestions. Have any other favorites? Let me know—I'd love to add to the list.
Gazpacho
Gazpacho is one of the most-loved and best-known of the cold soups. If you serve gazpacho, which is rich in veggies, you may want to skip the salad and simply serve with a delightful chewy bread, like sourdough. Ahhh. How yummy is that? I like recipes for gazpacho that do not involve the cheat of adding tomato juice. Nothing beats whole, fresh tomatoes as the basis for gazpacho—if you have them. If not, use canned tomatoes along with the juice they are packed in. You are basically making a salsa. Feel free to be flexible about adding other garden ingredients as you like.
Six fresh medium-sized tomatoes or two cans tomatoes and their juice
One or two cloves of crushed garlic. (Go easy on the fresh garlic so as not to overwhelm the other flavors. If you have the roasted garlic that comes in little jars, that would be ideal--it's much milder and you can use it more lavishly.)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped coarsely
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped coarsely (or half of a large one)
Salt and pepper to taste
Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor. Pulse lightly, only until ingredients are slightly melded but not pulverized (coarse texture is good). Taste and adjust the seasonings, as desired. Add a few drops of hot sauce, if you like.
Vichyssoise (Potato Leek Soup)
Vichyssoise is another soup that's been around forever--for a good reason. Once you taste it, you will understand why. Potato flavor, rich and delightful, with leeks adding to the inscrutability, with butter and other ingredients all playing roles in this operetta of a soup. For any guests--or children--who might be afraid of the fancy name of this soup, you could always call it "Potato leek soup." My grandfather was a Francophobe, so whenever I made him quiche, I always told him it was "egg pie." If I mentioned it was quiche, he wouldn't eat it. Egg pie disappeared from his plate. Go figure. Bon appetite, er, enjoy!
2 leeks, chopped, using all of the white part and a couple of inches of the green par
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups coarsely chopped, peeled potatoes
2 cups chicken stock (I especially love the chicken stock paste that comes in little jars--the brand name is Better-than-Bouillon, and you can get it at Trader Joe's or other high-end grocers. If you use the paste, reconstitute one teaspoon of paste for each cup of water)
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup half and half (or whole milk)
Basically, you add everything except the half and half to a pot. Cook until the potatoes and leeks are very tender. Remove from heat. Then, either pour the soup into a blender or food processor and blend, or, if you have a hand-held blender (I do--it's a marvelously handy gadget), blend the soup in the pot. Puree until the ingredients are uniform. The soup will be a beautiful creamy, light green color. Add in the half and half and allow to chill in a refrigerator for about an hour. Serve cool, not cold, however. Top with chopped chives, if you have them. In the winter, vichyssoise is superb hot (I serve it with Thanksgiving dinner).
Cold Cauliflower Curry Soup
Don't let the name fool you--cauliflower curry soup is righteous! I invented this recipe, and I am proud to say, it is one of my favorite soups—it's surprising, luscious, and no one can tell what's IN it. When you serve this cold soup, you will see many empty soup bowls and contented smiles.
One head cauliflower, coarsely chopped, with most of stem removed
1/2 white onion, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons curry powder (preferably the fresh kind that you make yourself, see Homemade Curry Powder)
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup half and half (or whole milk)
Cornstarch to thicken
Like vichyssoise, add everything to the pot except for half and half and cornstarch. Cook until the cauliflower and onion are tender and falling apart. Add in the half and half, and blend, as for the vichyssoise, with a blender, food processor, or hand-held blender, until the soup is pureed and of uniformly creamy texture. Mix a tablespoon or so cornstarch with enough water to make a loose paste. Stir this into the soup as you are heating it to thicken it to a lovely consistency (vichyssoise doesn't need it because the potatoes do the thickening). Chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator before serving.
In the first installment of "How Lentils Could Save the Earth," I introduced the almighty, super-studly, protein-rich lentil, and explored where it came from, how it's used, and why it's a fabulous, inexpensive and should be an important part of our diets. Now, I'd like to share a nifty recipe that has the power to change your mind about lentils forever--if you didn't love them already, you will after one bite of this.
Coconut Lentil Curry, with Garden Vegetables
1 medium onion 2 tablespoons ghee or butter 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root 10 cloves minced or crushed garlic 1 tablespoon ground cumin 1 tablespoon ground coriander 1 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 6 cups water 1 12 ounce can unsweetened coconut milk 1 cup lentils (the standard size--not the small ones), rinsed and sorted 2 medium or 1 large zucchini, cut into chunks or half discs, as you prefer 1 can chopped tomatoes, or 2 fresh tomatoes, diced 2 large or 3 medium carrots, cut into half discs 3 cups fresh greens (spinach is particularly wonderful, as it melts right in. If using Swiss chard, remove the spines and use just the leaves, chopped) Salt to taste, but add only after lentils are cooked
Saute the onions in the butter or ghee until tender and translucent.
Add all the ingredients except the greens and the salt to a pot. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the lentils are well-cooked (no more than 30 minutes). Taste the soup and add salt to taste. I recommend using either Vege-sal vegetable salt blend (it's tasty and works like vegetable stock), or Himalayan pink sea salt, which has fantastic health properties. Anyway, be sure not to add salt until after the beans are cooked (this is true of all beans, as salt hinders bean water absorption). If using Swiss chard, add now and cook until tender (five minutes). If adding spinach, add and cook only for one minute, until wilted.
Serve over basmati rice, or basmati rice pilaf. Also include minced, fresh chili peppers, for your guests to add in as they like. This dish is also wonderful when sprinkled with cayenne powder and/or smoked paprika.
Do you love bubbles? I LUUUUURRVE bubbles. All kinds of bubbles. Bubbles in cappuccino. Bubbles in champagne. Bubbles in a bath or hot tub. Bubbles in soda. But, wait a second—I rarely drink soda, even though I adore those tickly, fizzy bubbles popping lightly in my mouth. Why? Because commercial sodas are, simply put, too sweet. Kiddy sweet. Treacly. Show me a real foodie, and I will show you someone who wouldn’t be caught dead quaffing a standard-issue sickeningly sweet soda pop. But that would all change—when I got my hands on a SodaStream home soda fountain.
Soda came. It sweetened. It conquered.
Back in the 1800s, soda pop first was mass produced and then popularized by English inventor, John Matthews, who then immigrated to the U.S. Around the late 1800s, the right combination of bottles and cork-topped caps made distribution possible. Vending machines dispensing the new soda pop came along in the 1920s. Coca-cola, Pepsi-cola, and Dr. Pepper were among the earliest commercial soda brands, followed soon thereafter by 7-Up, and a bazillion others.
Somewhere between then and now, soda pop became overly commercialized, subverted, and warped. For some reason, the soda-makers decided to make their beverages super-sweet. Coca-Cola, for instance, has 39 grams of sugar—or the equivalent of 10 packets of sugar—in one 12 oz. can of soda. Who would take a cup and a half of tea and add 10 packets of sugar to it? That kind of sweetness level is insane.
Sure, lots of people opt for diet sodas, to skip sugar altogether. But diet sodas contain aspartame—which converts to wood alcohol in the blood, or sucralose—which is akin to chlorine. When you design your own sodas, you can still go the artificial sweetener route—SodaStream makes a line of diet soda flavorings (sweetened with sucralose), but a better way to go might be to mix your own sodas and simply use a smaller amount of sweetener—say, a teaspoon or two per serving.
Dissatisfied foodies have gone on to create more sophisticated sodas, and you can find delectable—and soberly sweetened—bubbly treats, such as Reed’s Ginger Brew and Boylan’s. These soda micro-brewers make their soda the old-fashioned way—soda fountain style—without artificial anything. And now you can, too. The bottom line is that SodaStream empowers you to make your soda the way you like it. You become the mixmaster. The demi-god of the fizz. And with an urge to explore and have fun, well, mixing your own soda fits right in.
Cue Journey’s “Any Way You Want It”
SodaStream has been around for a while, but is enjoying resurgence in popularity lately, with a redesigned website and some snazzy marketing. Once you have a home soda fountain, it’s easy to understand why: the carbonation units are highly portable: light-weight, cordless, and just easy. The unit I have, the red Fountain Jet, works like a dream and feels like a party. We drink “frizzy” water (the Italians call it frizzante) every night at supper. Sorry, Pellegrino. You’ve gotten our money for many years, but no more. Saving carbon is an environmentally caring choice. No more bottles to recycle, no more lugging back and forth. We now go local. As local as our own kitchen and our own little SodaStream, which is cute, too, by the way, and doesn’t take up much counter space.
How to Be a Soda Mixmaster
The secret is gourmet flavoring syrups. You know, the kind you can get at Cost Plus World Market or in Starbucks. Simply make the sparkling water with your SodaStream, and add in the desired amount of flavoring syrup. Voila! Artisanal soda at your fingertips.
Look for gourmet flavoring syrups that:
·Use pure cane sugar, not artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup
·Do not use artificial colors (some have no colorings, others do—check the ingredients list before buying)
·Use predominantly natural flavorings (some use artificial flavors, such as chocolate or cinnamon, but I am willing to forgive this as long as the other two conditions are satisfied)
Now, compound that wild list of potential soda flavors with what you could do in terms of “grown-up drinks,” (this is what we tell our five-year-old to distinguish from the drinks she can taste). Chocolate raspberry martini, anyone?
And oh, yeah, don’t forget soda drinks with a splash of heavy cream. You can make kiddy fountain drinks with a creamy pleasure to them. Think of the fun you can have at your next child’s birthday party? No need to cop out with a giant punch bowl—now you can make custom-tailored kiddy mocktails. And don’t forget about ice cream floats. What joy!
Carolyn’s Ginger Lemon Soda
As a bonus, here’s my original recipe for Ginger Lemon Soda. This will actually make you feel better if you are suffering from the flu. Somehow restorative and at the very least, super-yummy. A truly grown-up refresher that is slightly spicy, although my five-year-old loves it, too.
One liter of bubblicious SodaStream sparkling water
Agave nectar or maple syrup to taste (three tablespoons tastes about right to me, but adjust to your desired sweetness level)
Two teaspoons ginger root juice (grate peeled ginger root and squeeze to get the juice, add more to increase spiciness)
One tablespoon lemon juice
Add the three flavorings to the liter of sparkling water, being careful because the soda will bubble up when you add the sweetener. When bubbling has slowed, close the top, and gently rock from side to side to disperse the syrup. Serve over ice with a twist of lemon.
How about something refreshing and Islandish. Maybe it's Thai--who knows?
Use my Basic Asian Fried Rice recipe, only throw in three cloves of garlic, and use vegetable oil instead of sesame oil. Skip the ginger, and add in crushed cashews, golden raisins, and chopped pineapple. Serve in the hollowed out pineapple shells. Guaranteed to wow dinner guests, and leave them sated in a light way.
There are a few truly great soups in the world: Japanese miso shiru, Thai tom yam or tom ka, French onion soup, American New England clam chowder, Spanish gazpacho, Chinese hot and sour soup, and lastly, Vietnamese pho soup. Pho, pronounced fuh, is a beef broth soup made from cooking bony, fatty pieces of beef--the undesirable bits--in water with roasted ginger, onions, and star anise. The broth becomes aromatic and rich, while the odd slices of beef the soup may be served with are more of an afterthought than the main event.
Part of the fun of eating pho is that you get a plate of garnishes, so that you can add to your soup bowl as your taste dictates, composing your own soup experience. I'm a sucker for the make-your-own at the table art of cuisine. Somehow food tastes better because you chose the combo.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ Making the Broth
1 large yellow or white onion
3 inch piece unpeeled ginger root
2 to 3 pounds beef soup bones (leg, knuckle bones, oxtails--any bony, soup cuts of beef)
1/2 pound flank steak or sirloin (optional)
5 star anise
3 whole cloves
1-inch cinnamon stick
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 gallon water
Peel and cut the onion in half. Place it in a nonstick frying pan, along with the ginger root, unpeeled and sliced in half lengthwise. Char these for a few minutes to soften. Add these as is to the pot of water, along with the beef. Heat to boiling, and when impurities float to the top, skin them off repeatedly and discard.
Add in the star anise, cloves, cinnamon stick, salt, fish sauce, steak (if you used it), and sugar. Simmer about one and a half hours.
When cooking is complete, strain the broth through a cheesecloth in a colander to remove any impurities. Discard bones (here's where your family dog gets lucky). If you used steak, set it aside for slicing. Then, either skim off the layer of fat on top of the broth, or refrigerate and then scoop off the fat. You want a clear, delicate—not heavy—broth.
Garnishes a Go-Go
Assemble the following on a large plate, feeling free to substitute, as needed:
·Chopped cilantro
·Green onions, sliced into small rings (optional--we don't like raw onions in my family)
·1 cup fresh bean mung bean sprouts
·2 Limes cut into wedges
·1 bunch mint leaves
·1 bunch Thai basil or Italian basil
·2 chili peppers, thinly sliced (although Thai hot peppers are preferred, we use jalapenos, as they are less intense, but still pack some heat), with seeds removed
·Watercress or other greens, if you have them (saw-tooth herb is authentic, but not easily found)
·Sriracha hot chili sauce and hoisin sauce
Noodle-icious
Prepare 12 ounces of rice noodles as directed on the package, rinse in cold water, and set aside.
Creating the Pho Bowls
If you used steak, slice it against the grain in very thin slices. Heat the broth to boiling over medium heat Prepare the rice noodles as directed. Blanch the bean sprouts until wilted but still crisp. Fill each bowl approximately 1/4 full with noodles, place slices of steak (if used) on top of the noodles. Garnish this with sliced green onions (if used). Ladle the hot broth into each bowl. Serve the garnishes plate along with the pho soup.
Lentils. Daal (or dal or dahl). Sambar (or sambhar). Lentil soup. Lentil curry. Lentils and veggies. Over rice. Nice.
Lentils are seeds, of course, like all good pulses, and are shaped like little lenses. In fact, their genus is lens. Lens culinaris. Culinary lenses. Probably the earliest plant actually to be planted for cultivation purposes—the dawn of human agriculture—lentils make a huge contribution to the human diet with their 26% protein content (bested only by soybeans for sheer plant-protein-fortitude).
Lentils come in an eye-catching array of colors: green, orange, yellow, black, brown, red, white. And sizes—from teeny lenses to pea-sized lenses.
What I notice when I work with lentils is how fast they cook, compared to other beans (20 to 30 minutes for smaller lentils, more for larger ones). So, if you are serving rice and lentils, start them both at the same time, and you will be eating sooner than if you went out and bought Chinese take-out. Vegetarians love lentils—and with good reason—if you serve lentils along with a grain dish, between the two, you'll be getting complete protein, with all essential amino acids. Wow.
Some folks, like my husband (who has a tendency to explosive digestive issues), express concern about the inherent, um, fart-causing aspect of lentils and other beans. Well, it turns out there is a trick: soak lentils in water prior to cooking, and then discard the water. You will be pouring a good percentage of the fart-factor down the drain—and your whole household will be happier for it (unless that sort of thing amuses you—but probably best to reserve explosive digestive displays for say, camping trips, where the air is fresh).
Oh, yeah. Did I mention vitamins, minerals, and fiber? Lentils pack heaping doses of these too. It's even thought that regularly eating lentils can lower your risk of heart disease, and help balance your blood sugar. And don't forget—lentils are inexpensive. If you are a starving student, buy rice, lentils, and veggies and you will stretch your dollars to the maximum, while still eating well (and saving on doctor bills that your well-fed compatriots will later have from being part of the fast-food nation).
Drought-tolerant and grown simply everywhere, lentils are adept at feeding the world. Lentils could save the Earth and the people inhabiting same. Need any more reasons to start adding lentils to your family's diet? Nah—just some cooking ideas, please!
Here's a great list from Indian Foods Co. of spices and seasonings to use with lentils:
Cumin Seeds
Red Chillies
Mustard seeds
Ghee or oil for base of seasonings
Ginger Paste a must in most dals
Garlic Paste is sometimes used in dals
Coconut shreds (optional)
Tamarind or lime juice or fresh tomatoes or amchur powder to flavor the dal sour
Jaggery, maple syrup, brown sugar or palm sugar to flavor the dal sweet (optional)
Sambhar Powder to make the popular southIndian dal called sambhar
Garbanzo spice package to make the popular North Indian beans called Channa
A good rule of thumb is to use four cups of water for every cup of lentils and to cook for somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes (again, cook longer for larger lentils). Do not add salt until AFTER the lentils are already cooked. This is also true of all dried beans. Salt impedes the absorption of water during cooking. Save salt and salty seasonings until the end. (Sambar seasoning usually does not contain salt, so you can add that whenever you like).
You can buy a nice sambar powder at any Asian or Indian grocery store, with a recipe on the back. Sambar is a tangy, piquant, and irresistible lentil stew—but you will need tamarind paste to make it correctly (while cooking, just scoop off the white bubble layer that appears on top). You can always treat lentils like curry, and start with sauteing onions in butter or olive oil, adding garlic and grated ginger root, cooking the lentils in enough water (lentils are thirsty!), and then adding the usual suspects of turmeric, cumin, and coriander to flavor it "curry."
But honestly, you could also keep it simple: saute chopped onions in olive oil or butter, cook lentils in enough water, and then add a couple of cups of chopped veggies: eggplant, carrots, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, spinach, etc. Add salt to taste, and serve. If you want to play around, throw in some Cajun spice or Tabasco. It goes without saying to use your imagination and play around. Lentils are forgiving. Even if they are cooked to death, they merely resemble pea soup, and are still good to eat. And good to save your health and the planet.
Please send in your favorite lentil discoveries to me (Tumerica).
When I went to Thailand and had this soup for the first time I think my whole world just flipped right over on me all at once--it was the most remarkable taste experience ever. The flavors just blew me away--piquant, sour, spicy, rich, amazing! You have to try it. And you can easily make either Tom Yam or Tom Ka with a simple substitution. This soup is simple to make, but what's tricky is having the ingredients on hand. Because I love this so much, I stockpile fish sauce, coconut milk and dried shiitake mushrooms (although the original calls for straw mushrooms). My hubby grows lemongrass in the garden year-round, and we have a lime tree that contributes a leaf here and there. You can make this without lime leaf and lemongrass, but add some lime zest to substitute. I think you are going to love this special and wonderful soup--one of the great wonders of the culinary world!
Tom Ka Gung with Variations
4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 (12 ounce) can coconut milk (Not the reduced fat kind. Fat makes it taste DELICIOUS!)
2 cups chicken stock (I use the chicken stock paste that comes in little jars, Better Than Bouillon brand. It has no MSG and is all-natural. Plus, stored in the fridge, it lasts a LONG time.)
2 cups water
2 sprigs lemongrass, root (two inch sprigs, chopped into tiny slices)
1 kaffir lime leaf (or other lime leaf, tossed in whole) (optional)
1 lime, juice of
4 garlic cloves (or more depending on your preference)
1 (19 ounce) package silken tofu, drained and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup shrimp (optional)
1 cup mushrooms (Any kind, such as white, shiitake, portobello, straw, white, etc. I mostly use shiitake because I keep a giant container on hand, but the most authentic is straw mushrooms, which you can find canned in the Asian section of grocery stores.)
1 teaspoon red chili paste (I like Sriracha brand. Add more to taste. If serving to kids--my five-year-old likes this soup--then add ketchup instead. A small amount of ketchup tastes good--trust me!)
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
Garnishes
Chopped cilantro
Thai basil, for garnish
Hot chili sauce, such as Sriracha
Diced hot chili peppers
1. Add the coconut milk, chicken stock, and water to a heavy put, and begin to simmer while adding the other ingredients (except for garnishes and shrimp or other fish). 2. After the spices have "relaxed," add either the shrimp or chunks of salmon and stir only until cooked (two or three minutes). 3. Garnish and serve. Variations
Vegetarian Soup Instead
* To make this soup vegetarian, substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock, and leave off the prawns. You've already got tofu, so that's a great protein source. Lastly, if fish sauce is a no-no, then substitute Bragg's Amino Acids (like soy sauce).
Tom Yam Instead
* To make Tom Yam instead of Tom Ka, do everything the same, except subsitute more chicken stock to replace the coconut milk.
Nothing says Spring/Summer savory fun like kebabs. And the secret of fabulous kebabs is marinating in advance. When the meat and veggies soak in a piquant marinade, they evolve into something different altogether, something irresistible when grilled. Now, you have to be generous with salt—marinating is not a good time to ration salt. Salt brings out the gorgeous flavor of meats. And lamb, ahhhhh, the king of all meats, for serious omnivores. Get as fresh a lamb leg as possible and as local as possible (not always an option—stores around here carry mostly New Zealand or Ozzie lamb, which is a bummer—why aren’t there more U.S. lamb ranches?). My little girl’s fifth birthday party is next Saturday, June 14, and we are serving this dish—among a cornucopia of other dishes. We always make some vegetable-only kebabs, too, for our vegetarian friends (marinate the vegetable separately to keep it all copacetic). Don’t be afraid of kebabs. Just take it in two steps: marinate the pieces the first day and load the kebabs and grill the second day.
Meat Preparation:
1 boneless Leg of Lamb
1 tablespoon Ground Cumin Seeds
1 tablespoon Ground Coriander Seeds
½ teaspoon Ground Turmeric
½ teaspoon Ground Cardamom Seeds
½ teaspoon Ground Fennel Seeds
½ teaspoon Ground Black Peppercorns
1 teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon Grated Ginger Root
1 tablespoon Crushed Garlic
¼ cup Red Wine—or more to get slightly sloshy consistency
3 tablespoons Olive Oil—or more to get slightly sloshy consistency
Vegetable Preparation:
4 to 5 cups Assorted Vegetables [Cut in 1 to ½ inch chunks]
Use summer squash, zucchini, patty pan, Vidalia or other sweet onions, green onions, mushrooms, asparagus, green, red, or orange peppers, etc. Veggies that don’t work well are both hard veggies (such as potatoes, parsnips, and carrots—because they won’t cook through in the same amount of time as the rest of the items on the kebobs) or soft veggies (because they’ll fall apart—don’t use tomatoes or white mushrooms, though portabellas would be good).
1 tablespoon Ground Cumin Seeds
1 tablespoon Ground Coriander Seeds
½ teaspoon Ground Turmeric
½ teaspoon Ground Cardamom Seeds
½ teaspoon Ground Fennel Seeds
½ teaspoon Ground Black Peppercorns
1 teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon Grated Ginger Root
1 tablespoon Crushed Garlic
¼ cup of White Wine or Sake—or more to get slightly sloshy consistency
3 tablespoons Olive Oil—or more to get slightly sloshy consistency
Putting It All Together
Make this recipe one day in advance to knock your guests out with ecstasy. If you are short on time, at least prepare it in the AM and grill it in the PM—but no less time than that, as the spices won’t get into the meat and veggies otherwise.
You can mix up all the spices and the ginger and garlic in one batch (because they are the same for the veggies and the meats) and then put red wine in the lamb Zip-lock bag and the white wine in the veggie one.
Marinate the lamb chunks, the spices, and the wine and oil (listed under Meat Preparation) in one large Zip-lock freezer bag. Keep refrigerated for one to two days, turning the bag each time you open the refrigerator to distribute the marinade. If the marinade is not sufficient to coat all the pieces luxuriously (if lamb leg is too big), then double the marinade quantities.
In the same way, marinate the veggies in the spices and wine and oil (listed under Vegetable Preparation) in a large freezer bad and turn every time you open the refrigerator door.
When you are ready to grill, use wooden skewers and alternately skewer meat chunk, veggie chunk, meat chunk, veggie chunk, etc., leaving at least an inch at the bottom and the top of the skewer.
Grill, turning occasionally, until you see some charring on the edges of the onions and the meat looks cooked through.
Enjoy with rice and a salad for a terrific and simple summer meal.
What Eye 8 delights in demystifying the secrets of gourmet cooking. We are PASSIONATE about food at WHAT EYE 8. If you are too, let us know.
Who Writes “What Eye 8”?
Carolyn Blount Brodersen
Carolyn Blount Brodersen is a freelance nonfiction writer, foodie, and poet. She lived for five years in Japan. When not devising strategies to change the world, she devotes the rest of her time to thinking about food.
"Well–behaved women seldom make history."
—Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Too hot to have something heavy and bready to cook or to eat. Too. Hot. Can't. Think.Ugh.
