Doug and I just enjoyed a rare and treasured week-long
visit with our daughter, Mandy (and her dog, Charlie). Whenever she travels the distance from NYC to our humble abode in south Florida, we like to spoil
her. She travels a lot for work and has the opportunity to dine in 5-star
restaurants in exotic places.
In advance of her visits, we always ask what she’d like us
to cook for her, (as if we didn’t already know!). She never hesitates to name some
of her favorites – shish kebab, tass kebab, fassoulia with lamb, bulgur pilaf –
you know, the usual. We accommodate her wishes as best we can depending on the
length of her stay.
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| Fassoulia with Lamb over Bulgur Pilaf |
For this visit, we bought the necessary ingredients and
rolled up our sleeves. For the shish kebab, Doug diligently trimmed, cubed,
marinated and grilled lamb shish kebab, while I did the stovetop preparations.
She admitted that none of the 5-star restaurants she’s encountered could match
the food we prepared for her. That’s our daughter – providing a totally “unbiased”
commentary on our cooking ability!
(Click here to read Doug’s blog item regarding shish kebab.)
Mandy and I planned to practice making stovetop lavash
together, but just couldn’t squeeze in that project. I made it myself the other
day, but that’ll be another post.
Once she left, we had to re-stock our refrigerator. While
walking through the meat section of our grocer’s Doug spotted several unusually
eye-appealing packages of lamb loin chops. When I saw the glimmer in his eyes,
I knew it could only mean one thing – kebab, the easy way. What that means is,
no trimming, cubing or skewering are involved – and because we (sometimes) use our electric
grill, no charcoal would be necessary.
Here’s Doug’s
Easy ‘Kebab’ procedure:
Technically, this recipe is not truly kebab since the meat
is still attached to the bone and no skewer is needed, but the taste is
certainly there!
Note: Amounts aren’t included here
because they will vary depending on how many people you plan to serve. Click here to view a previously posted kebab recipe to help you out. To give you an
idea, we bought a total of 8 small loin chops, and between the two of us, 3
chops remained. Our side dishes included bulgur pilaf, grilled tomatoes and
onions, and a chopped salad.
In a large bowl, place the lamb loin chops. Create a
marinade using red wine, olive oil, onion slices, chopped garlic, salt, pepper,
freshly ground coriander seed. Toss marinade over the meat until all pieces are
coated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or
overnight. (Overnight marinating is much better!)
Heat the electric grill to high. Once heated place the loin
chops on the grill, spacing them apart. Cover the grilling surface with the
grill cover, and allow meat to cook for about 5 minutes on each side, depending
on the degree of doneness you prefer.