Lamb Kebab – a personal history

The first time I had lamb kebab was in 1971, at the famed George Mardikian’s restaurant in San Francisco, Omar Khayyam. There are dining moments in everyone’s life that stand out as the top experiences, and this was one of them. I ordered the shish kebab mostly because those were the only words I recognized on the menu. My dad used to make shish kebab on the Hibachi in the 60’s, which consisted of chunks of London broil that had been marinated in something, along with peppers and onions, and burned tomatoes. It seemed a safe bet.

What I had at Omar Khayyam that day was one of those defining moments of the palate of a 16-year old: it was wondrous, perfectly cooked, and served on a pilaf that was delicate, and delightful.

In his cookbook, Dinner at Omar Khayyam’s, which was first published in 1944 to introduce Armenian and Middle Eastern cooking to Americans, Mardikian provided a simple recipe for shish kebab. It goes like this:

  • 1 leg of lamb (5 to 6 pounds)
  • 8 ounces onions, peeled, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1/3 cup dry sherry
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1 teaspoon oregano

This simple recipe was aimed at the kinds of things an American housewife might know about and have on hand, but certainly could not have been what he was using in his restaurant. As I got a little older, I had a certain nostalgia for the meal I enjoyed there, and in around 1976, after Leslie and I were married, we had a subscription to Bon Appetit magazine (which I now get online). Every month, they had a feature where they would get a recipe from a famous restaurateur, and somewhere around that time they printed the “real recipe” from George Mardikian for his famous shish kebab. I was elated.

We made it many times through the years, and it was close to what nostalgic memory recalled, but without the elegance of actually being in that basement restaurant on Powell Street (which sadly burned down in the mid-80’s).

In the last several years I have been curating my own recipe for lamb kebab, and it has been a staple of the summer grilling months here. I thought I would share it here. I have to warn you, however, that the quantities of the ingredients are somewhat unknown to me. I throw things at the lamb without measuring and do the best that I can. Experiment and have fun!

Lamb Kebab recipe

For a while, I was buying boneless leg of lamb at Halal markets, and have also had fresh leg of lamb cut up for me. In my location, I find that when you ask for boneless leg of lamb at a Halal market, you will get the same thing you get at Costco. It’s not fresh, as in, it was walking around minding its own business yesterday fresh. However, there are good sources of lamb that don’t have to be sitting on a container ship from New Zealand. Lamb freshness matters. If the lamb tastes “gamey” or “lamby” then it’s been waiting to clear customs too long in the harbor. My favorite question when I serve this to guests is: “what kind of meat is this?” That’s how you know it’s fresh.

Get the freshest lamb you can. If you get a whole leg cut up, with the bones attached, it will be fantastic, just more challenging to eat. I mostly go with 5-6 lbs of boneless lamb leg, purchased either at the Halal market or Costco.

Instructions

Marinate the following

  • 5-6 lbs boneless lamb (or cut up lamb leg)
  • 1/2 bulb of fresh garlic (about 6 cloves)
  • 3 tbs of chopped rosemary
  • olive oil
  • kosher salt

Cut up the leg into 1 – 1 1/2 inch cubes, trimming fat and gristle. Put the lamb into a large bowl, coat with kosher salt, and toss by hand. Add the garlic and rosemary, and toss again, then add enough olive oil to coat when you toss again.

Cover the lamb mixture with plastic wrap and allow to marinate for 1-2 hours. I do this outside the refrigerator. If you’re the nervous type, put it in the fridge.

Spice and honey the lamb

Here’s the dirty secret to this: I use Penzey’s Turkish seasoning for the spice mixture. It’s a mixture of salt, garlic, cumin, Tellicherry black pepper, Turkish oregano, sweet paprika, sumac, cayenne red pepper and cilantro. It’s great.

Coat the lamb liberally with this spice mixture, tossing all the while (glove up for this, unless you like your hands looking orange and dogs following you).

Once you feel like the spices are well distributed and the lamb well coated, drizzle honey over it as you toss it. You want just enough honey to add a sweetness to the charred lamb.

Skewer and grill

If you want vegetables with your kebab, place them on separate skewers. Lamb and onions don’t cook at the same rate, and you want to avoid that whole “burned tomato” experience. What I often do is prepare the vegetables by roasting them in the oven in a more controlled, flame-free environment.

Skewer your lamb on their own skewers, being sure not to make them press tightly into each other. Put the skewers on the grill, and turn them every couple of minutes until you pretty certain that they’re cooked on all sides. I go for somewhere between medium rare and medium.

Serve with a rice pilaf, and roasted vegetables, and you have a feast.

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Making Pho with flavor

I have had Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) from several restaurants around Columbus, and have never been that impressed. Sure, I love chicken broth with rice noodles and stuff in it, but the flavor never really kicked it for me. I have also had Pho that just tasted too weird, with one flavor dominating, like, for example, holy basil.

My wife made a simple Pho a while back, which was really good, but I wanted to kick the flavors up. My first attempt was good, and so was the second, and the third. Each time I was playing with ingredients, and I think I’m getting this down. Each time I make it I’m pulling things out of the refrigerator that we simply have around. I believe we call these leftovers, like a single T-bone steak in the fridge (what else are you going to do with that, except munch on it late at night?), or a bone-in pork chop. The one meat base that I use more often than anything is shrimp.
Let me share my recipe, and you can decide if it’s worth it.

About some of the ingredients

For a lot of these ingredients you will probably need an Asian market nearby, or you might find them in your local grocery. I have thoughts about some of them, that may help you decide where to get them.

Bok Choy

The best part of the bok choy is the leaf. It absorbs flavors and heat beautifully. A lot of bok choy and baby bok choy in the regular supermarket is mostly stem. At my local Saraga store, there is lovely baby bok choy that is very leafy, and works the best. Asian grocers will also have much better bok choy, and probably fresher.

Banh Pho (Vietnamese rice noodles)

Most Asian markets have several brands of good quality. I prefer the thinner noodles (linguine or fettuccine size) to the thick ones. The thick ones don’t slurp as nicely, and they clump together more readily. I find the linguine thickness is just right for pho.

Spices

For spice I use coriander, white and black pepper. I prefer to take the whole seeds of the coriander and whole peppercorns and grind them together into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle. You can also roast these before grinding them. Put them all on a dry iron skillet and turn up the heat. When you can smell them, they’re ready.

Ginger

Powdered ginger is a no-no. Get really fresh ginger at an Asian/International market. I know that your supermarket has ginger, but it’s already dried out. The way you can tell really fresh ginger is that the skin is smooth, not desiccated, and the flesh is yellow and looks almost wet. By the way, the best way to peel ginger is with the edge of a spoon, not with a knife. I did this the wrong way for years.

The Recipe

This recipe will feed six hungry people. Since we have four in our house, we have to fight over who’s taking the leftovers the next day.

  • 1 package banh pho (rice noodles)
  • 48 oz. chicken broth (about a box and a half)
  • about 6-8 cups of bok choy (I also use nappa sometimes)
  • 1 – 1 1/2 lbs of shrimp
  • 2 tbsp sesame oil
  • 2 tbsp (or more to taste) minced fresh ginger
  • 1 tsp coriander seeds, ground up
  • 1/2 – 1 tsp white peppercorns
  • 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
  • 2 tsp chili garlic (sambal oelek)
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce (I use San J Tamari Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 2 tbsp hoisin sauce (optional, I’m not sure it helps)
  • about 4-5 scallions, cut up
  • (optional: slices of jalapeno, or your choice of chili)
  • (optional: cilantro for garnish)

Instructions

This should take about 30 minutes, depending on your prep and how fast you like to move around the kitchen.

  1. In a pot, boil enough water to cover the rice noodles.
  2. Get your ingredients ready while that boils. Cut the bok choy, peel the shrimp if you prefer, slice up that leftover steak, grind up your spices, etc.
  3. Pour the 2 tbsp of sesame oil in a large pot. I use an iron/ceramic dutch oven for this. Once it shimmers, add the 2 tsp of chili garlic and stir. Add the freshly ground spices and ginger to it, and reduce your heat to medium.
  4. If your water is ready, add the noodles to the boiling water. They should take around 8 minutes to cook, so set a timer; you’ll be busy, and you want them to come out of the boiling water once they’re ready.
  5. Pour the chicken broth in to the pot with the oil/spice mix, give it a stir. Add the soy sauce, fish sauce and hoisin and bring it back to a near boil, stirring occasionally.
  6. Once it’s starting to bubble, add the bok choy and the shrimp, any other meat, and the (optional) jalapeno.
  7. When the rice noodles are ready, pour them into a colander and hit them with cold water. You want to stop them from cooking further, or they will fall apart.
  8. Simmer the mixture for about 5 minutes. The shrimp should turn pink.
  9. Sprinkle at the last minute with cilantro
  10. Serve by putting some noodles in a bowl, and adding the mixture with some broth over the chilled noodles. They will warm up just fine.

Enjoy! Let me know what you think!
Brian

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Some things have changed

I started this web site about 10 years ago, mostly for the sake of the men in my Sexual Integrity for Men course. Then I used it to provide news of an upcoming book, Porn Free: Finding Renewal through Truth and Community. The book was published in 2011, sold well, and since then has faded, as all such books do.

I was never a diligent blogger, having many other responsibilities and less free time than it would require. Maybe I was doing something more important, and so it was a good thing. Since then, a lot of things have changed for me, and I have completed neglected this site for about 7 years. I have decided to broaden the scope of this site, not because I’m not interested in sexual health and recovery from addiction, but because I’m also interested in other things.

Earlier today I posted a recipe. I’m an avid cook, and read other cooking blogs, and thought I could use it to share recipes I’ve developed with my friends. Maybe other people will be interested as well. Then I decided that I was use this blog in a more general sense, rather than the very specific purpose I created it for. After all, if I’m going to pay the hosting fees I might as well use it.

So you will see new content here, and that means it’s time to re-brand. I hope the reader enjoys the difference.

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The Magical Salad recipe

Of all the things I cook, this is one of the most requested recipes for gatherings. It’s a simple salad that features chevre (goat cheese), figs, and glazed pecans. Those three flavors together are amazing by themselves, but they do something really special when paired with a homemade dressing with sweet fruit notes.

The recipe below is a base: you can add a lot of other things to the salad that you enjoy. Also, the quantities and proportions are not very scientific. Use your taste buds to get everything right.

Ingredients

  • 1 large bowl of a firm lettuce, such as Romaine – I’ve also added a smaller quantity of specialized lettuces for color and flavor or bitterness. Watch out for red leaf lettuce, which will turn everything to a muddy color that doesn’t look like it tastes good at all.
  • About 10 dried figs
  • 1 cup of crumbled plain chevre
  • About a cup of glazed pecans
  • 1 ripe pear (red, anjou, etc.) – make sure that it’s ripe, because you want the slivers to melt into the salad, not be crisp

Optional:

  • Bacon crumbles – I forego this for a gathering where someone might not eat pork
  • Mozzarella or Jack cheese, shredded fine
  • Other things that go well in a sweeter tasting salad. Have fun with it.


Dressing

  • 1/4 cup Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar
  • 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil – use an oil that is meant for salads or drizzling. I use Lucini Premium Select Extra Virgin Olive Oil exclusively for this recipe.
  • 1/4 cup Blood Orange or Cava Cava or Valencia juice- you want an orange that has stronger orange flavor, not some overgrown tasteless navel
  • Pink Himalayan Salt
  • Aleppo Pepper Flakes

Instructions

  • Wash and cut the lettuce and put it in a large bowl. Make a lot, because it will disappear.
  • Sliver the pear into very thin slices, and add it to the lettuce. Translucency is your friend.
  • Dice the figs into 1/4 inch pieces; do the same with the pecans or put them in a plastic bag and bang them with a kitchen mallet until they’re all about that size.
  • Crumble the goat cheese, or do like I do and buy it pre-crumbled.
  • Toss the salad around until it looks like they are even distributed and there’s plenty of goodies
  • To make the dressing, add the vinegar, olive oil, and orange juice to a bowl. Add a pinch or so of salt, and a teaspoon of Aleppo pepper flakes to the mixture and whisk until it’s smooth. Taste and adjust as necessary. Let this set for a while for the flavors to infuse.
  • Don’t pour the dressing and toss until you’re ready to serve.


I hope that you enjoy making this and serving to your friends.

Brian

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