Recipe: Karabakh Khoravats

[mishalak]

Normally I object to shish kebab type preparations of meat. They never seem to live up to the wonderful look on the outside, they're dry and not terribly flavorful. But I saw this recipe in one of my many Slavic cookbooks and had to try it. What a surprise. It was a very, very good meal and I think it was that it was just meat on the skewer and the meat pieces were coated in the marinade that so intrigued me.

To serve 4 (but we served five and had some left over today)

Marinade:
1 tablespoon oregano
1 large onion, finely grated
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons pomegranate syrup
2 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground black pepper

I just finely minced my onion, a Vidalia one as it happens, and that seemed to work just fine. Then I combined all the ingredients and then added it to 2 pounds boneless lean pork, cut from the loin, cut into 1½- to 2-inch cubes. I marinade it for about 3 hours in the refrigerator though the recipe called for it to be done at room temperature for 3-4 hours. I think that it makes very little difference to do it in a refrigerator vs. out in the open most of the time. After that the meat was packed tightly upon two metal skewers (since we didn't have four as the recipe called for. Next time I might try four though).

Then I lit up the gas grill putting it on high. The old recipe book suggested either under a broiler element set on high or upon a "charcoal broiler" (I assume that's an old term for a grill) that has heated until there a fine layer of ash upon the charcoal. I let it heat to about 350 F.

There was a fair amount of smoke and flame, but I didn't worry about that too much. I tried to turn the meat over about every four minutes and then dribble a bit of the marinate that remained in the bowl on top of the meat. When all four sides had been done I started turning it more frequently and as it came up upon 15 minutes I started poking at the meat to see if it was done and finally slid the meat apart a bit to see that it was only very slightly pink in the center. Perfect.

They suggest serving it with a bit more pomegranate syrup, tomato slices, and scallions. I second the recommendation. We had it with a side of vegetables, salad, and Moscow mules (mixed drink). Pomegranate syrup, also called pomegranate molasses, can be found with the Turkish or Arabic food even in some mainstream supermarkets.

Comments

[fairmer.livejournal.com]

Alright. I'm trying that! Thx for the recipe!

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

You're quite welcome. Oh and something I forgot to warn about, it does drop bits of onion into the flames so you have to not be worried about that.

[fairmer.livejournal.com]

So noted.

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

That sounds fantastic.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Thanks

[scottscidmore.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good one. It resembles a Persian lamb kabob that I've done; I think that the carbohydrates in the pomegranate molasses helps coat the meat, perhaps reducing the tendency to dry out.

Alternative names for pomegranate syrup are pomegranate essence, pomegranate concentrate, and Grenadine - read the label, the imported stuff is more likely to truly be pomegranate, some of the US stuff is basically colored water and can cost more that the real thing.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I think the fact that it was pork loin rather than some cheap cut of meat might have had something to do with it. Not sure though. And that fact that it was pork too. I think that pork comes out rather well off a grill.

[scottscidmore.livejournal.com]

The grade of meat does have a lot to do with how well grilled dishes turn out. You need some fat to have it feel moist, but not so much that it is real greasy (well, unless that's what your after). I know that some cuts just don't handle grilling well at all, doing better boiled or in stews and the like.

I don't know how differing animals compare, be interesting to do a series of trials, each with the same several types of meat to get some idea which works best.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

You know who will have done that? Cooks Illustrated Magazine. They do some pretty exhaustive cooking to figure out what really works in cooking and what are old wives tales. Not perfect, but they do bring a pretty good experimental mindset to cooking and I'll bet that one of their books will have something about the best cuts for grilling.

[scottscidmore.livejournal.com]

Ah, good idea, I'll have to try and find if any of the local libraries has it.

Although it might be more fun doing the research ones self.



Here's a Moroccan kebab

http://www.mincom.gov.ma/english/gallery/cuisine/recipes/kebab.htm