Chicken Tikka Kebabs--The Power Outage Improvisation

Chicken Tikka is my favorite grilled chicken dish. I like it because of the Indian spices, which add a lot of flavor, and the yogurt, which makes it always very moist. I usually buy a ready made tikka paste in the Indian spice store, add yogurt and marinate chicken breasts in it. It has a very intensive red color.

I was planning on buying a new jar for the rest of the grilling season but during the recent power outage, when my refrigerator was thawing, I had to improvise and make the marinate myself, desperate to save the most vulnerable chicken breasts.

I remembered the recipe from one of the magazines that I constantly browse. It was a simple recipe using traditional Indian spices but what made it particularly interesting was the generous use of whole cumin seeds.

Chicken Tikka Kebabs

Ingredients:
2 lb chicken breasts, boneless,
1/2 cup natural yogurt,
2 onions,
2 garlic cloves, minced,
3 tbsp lemon juice,
3 tbsp oil,
2 inches of a fresh ginger root, peeled and grated,
1 tsp red chili pepper,
1 tsp red paprika,
1 tbsp cumin seeds,
1 tsp cardamon powder,
1/2 tsp salt,
1/4 tsp pepper.

Preparation:
1. Cut chicken breasts into medium cubes.
2. Mix yogurt, 2 tbsp oil, lemon juice, grated ginger, minced garlic, and all the dry spices. Mix well and let it marinate for at least 4 hours, or preferably overnight.
3. Peel off onions and cut in quarters. Stick chicken cubes on the grill skewers alternating with slices of onion. Drizzle with the remaining tbsp of oil.

4. Preheat the grill to 350 F. Place Tikka kebab on a grill and grill for about 10-15 minutes turning frequently and brushing kebabs with the remaining marinate.

Serve with the Naan bread or rice and salads.

Coconut Beef Satays--For Hurricane Season

Grilling season is still going on, but that is not the reason for my today's post and recipe. We were lucky in my area not to be in any way hurt by Hurricane Irene. On the same Saturday evening when Irene was picking up around DC we were able to land at Dulles Airport in a pouring rain quietly and smoothly. But some were not so lucky. My niece, visiting her friends in New Jersey experienced (I guess for the first time in her life) a five day long power outage.

I think many understand how long those day feel in our "modern" civilization when you no access to phone, computer, or even TV. No light for reading either. And If you are one of those people who like me have this sleek and shiny electric cooktop (which otherwise I love deeply as it heats to a maximum temperature and cools down in just nine seconds) you may have had no warm meal for five days either. My niece survived on grilled food and just wished to have more grilling ideas.

Power cuts, which happen on my street from time to time, due to weather condition was one of the reasons I decided to get a beautiful new outdoors kitchen and grill, to have a backup gas option when disaster strikes. At the same time I started to enjoy grilling and I do that at least once a week. Here is my latest grilling recipe, which comes from the Asian culinary tradition.

Coconut Beef Satays

Ingredients:
1 lb skirt steaks cut into thin slices (in Asian food stores you can buy them already thinly sliced),
1 lime,
2 garlic cloves,
1 tbsp dark brown sugar,
2 tsp ground coriander,
2 tsp ground cumin,
1 tsp turmeric,
4 tbsp coconut milk,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. Squeeze juice from the lime and sprinkle over steaks.
2. In a small bowl mix garlic, salt, sugar, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and coconut milk and make a thick paste.
3. Rub it all over the steak strips. Cover and marinate for a minimum an hour, but preferably overnight.
4. Thread beef on bamboo skewer, brush gently with oil on top.

5.Grill quckly on a very hot grill.

Coriander Beef Kebab--Another Afghan dish

Since my outdoor grill is now ready and the weather has been very pleasant almost the whole June--quite hot but dry, I have been experimenting a lot with grilled food. So far, I tried almost every type of and made many salads to accompany it. I discovered that the easiest way to make something good on the grill is to buy good quality steaks, or even better fillet mignon (beef tenderloin), do not even marinate them or add spice beyond salt and pepper and in minutes they are ready. But since they seem every one's favorite thing to grill, I like to serve something that others do not make too often. I also like my dishes to be aromatic and spicy and tenderloin in its delicacy and perfection is too mild for me.

Not so long ago I got a recipe for kebabs from my Afghan friend and ever since I make them pretty often. They can be served with different sauces and chutneys (with coriander or mint and yogurt),and various Middle-Eastern breads or rice.

They are moist inside, if made carefully, and never overwhelmingly spicy, as coriander is the main and the only spice except for salt and pepper. The same kebabs can also be made on a frying pan, if you do not have a grill. I am sure you will also find them delicious, either way.

Beef Kebabs
(Makes 6-8 kebabs)

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef,
1 bunch of scallions, white parts only,
1 half a small red onion,
about 1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves,
1 green chili pepper (optional, if you like your kebabs more spicy),
1-2 tsp ground coriander seeds,
about 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.

Preparation:
1. Put chopped scallions, onion, fresh coriander, and green chili in a food processor and blend until they become minced.
2. Put ground beef in a large bowl, add the content of the blender, dried ground coriander seeds, salt, pepper and knead the mix until all the ingredients are well combined.

3. Take small pieces of meat and rolling in hands form kebabs.

4. Preheat the grill to 400 F, grill meat for about 3 minutes, then turn the heat down to a low temperature and cook for about 3-5 minutes until the meat is cooked through but still juicy inside.

Serve with Afghan chutneys--with yogurt and mint, or coriander, or the peach chutney that I will post shortly.

Lentil and Garlic Salad--from Lunch to Grill Party

I am not a big fan of social marathons. I like going out, seeing people, invite and be invited, but I can easily feel overwhelmed doing that too many times in a row. Funny enough, it often happens that way, as people get excited and socially active around the same occasions and holidays. That is what happens now, when people have returned from vacation to DC and want to meet friends after a couple months of the summer break, but cannot meet them all at the same time. As a result, I have on my schedule a picnic on Friday, grill on Saturday, and people coming over on Monday.

For today's grill I have offered to make a salad to accompany the delicious meats that the hosts will grill for us. Again a very easy one. I ate it first many years ago in Switzerland, and I make it quite often. It is very helpful to serve it at grill events, when we mostly serve meats, but also happen to have vegetarians among guests. Lentil is a plant that is third richest in protein, and also one of the best sources of iron, and therefore it can be a nutritious meal in itself especially when served with other vegetables. This lentil salad can also be served as a great lunch dish, just with fresh bread, and with or without cold cuts.

Lentil and Garlic Salad
(Six to eight servings)

Ingredients:
3 cups of cooked lentil (canned lentil would be just fine--you would need two 15.5 oz cans),
2 pint boxes or 1 lb of cherry tomatoes,
1 bunch of dill--you will need about 1/2 cup of chopped dill,
2 cloves of garlic,
1/2 lb of Ricotta Salata cheese,
1 lemon,
3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil,
Pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. If you use canned lentil, drain it, wash in cold water, drain again and place in a large bowl.
2. Cut tomatoes in half if they are of the larger variety, or leave them whole if they are very small, and add to the lentil.
3. Chop dill and add to the bowl.
4. Cut the cheese into very small cubes, mix it with all the ingredients.
5. Squeeze garlic into the salad.
6. Add pepper (no salt as Ricotta Salata is very salty already).
7. Add oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice, mix carefully and serve.

It is important to have all the ingredients cut into small pieces, as the salad prepared this way tastes better. I tried recently to make this salad in Poland--where Ricotta Salata is not widely available--with Feta cheese but this did not work because Feta is much more wet and soft than Ricotta Salata.

White Cabbage Salad--Polish Ingredients, German Way

What can I possibly post on my last day of vacation in Poland? Cabbage, of course! But since this is almost a one-ingredient dish I will have to tell the story how this very low calorie and healthy salad got onto my family menu, especially that--which may seem surprising--this is not a Polish recipe.

Many years ago, still during the communist times, I went with my parents on vacation to our western neighbors--a tiny town called Friedrichroda in then East Germany, very close to the border with West Germany. You cannot even imagine how western it felt there then! Store shelves were filled up with a great variety of very desirable products: Salamander shoes, corduroy pants, a huge choice of wallpapers, not to mention the great variety of attractive looking food. The only regret was that we could not buy much for our limited allowance of GDR marks.

Every day's highlight were though the copious meals that we were served at the resort. It was a "lavish" Swedish buffet where you could eat as much as you wanted, which some people really tried, endlessly filling up their plates. The choice was wonderful, especially cold meats, which at that time we could only dream of in Poland, but also breads and salads. The most disappointing were desserts--tasteless, and not even sweet at all.

We liked the white cabbage salad particularly well. It was made from a very familiar ingredient--a mainstay of Polish cuisine--but was served in an unfamiliar way. We put our broken German through a strenuous test and got the recipe. Ever since, for more than thirty years, we have been having it at hour home. The only difference is we do not serve it as a self-standing salad but only with dinners--it enhance very good with meat, even grilled ones, and most of all with fish, especially fried in breadcrumbs.

So if you are tired of green salads and looking for something easy and healthy, this salad is an option rich in vitamins A, B1, B12, and C. It is always a huge hit at our deck parties and disappears fast, earning praises for its uniquely refreshing taste.

Shredded White Cabbage Salad

Ingredients:
1/2 medium white cabbage (it actually should be young and still green),
1/2 cup flat-leaved Italian parsley,
1/2 cup chopped dill,
1 tbsp sugar,
1 lemon,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. Shred the cabbage very thinly, put in a bowl, salt with about 1/2 tsp of salt, squeeze with hands slightly to help salt to penetrate and soften the cabbage, and aside for about 20-30 min.
2. Add sugar and lemon juice--you need to try how sour and sweet you like it to be--it should be sweet but the sour taste should dominate.
3. Put in dill and parsley, mix together, and serve.

Can be made even hours ahead and served straight from the refrigerator, especially on a hot day, for instance with grilled meats.