My obsession with grilling continues… I recently got a new grill and have been using it almost everyday. I just really look forward to grilling. So I was making chicken kebabs and I had a couple of large tomatoes I needed to use. Don’t ask me why but I thought I’d put a skewer through them and put them on the rack above the kebabs so that the liquid would trickle down.
So Gar was gone for a night visiting family and I wanted to cook a bunch of stuff for him when he got back. Yes, cooking a lot for him was a nice gesture but it also kept me happy and occupied all afternoon. So I decided to make some deviled eggs as a snack before dinner. When I opened the fridge to get out my eggs, I saw the really nice bacon I had got the day before and this idea suddenly came to me… I should make a deviled egg that is a fun play on a loaded baked potato.
The other day, I made really simple and easy-to-make meatballs. I make a few different kinds of meatballs depending on how I feel and how much work I want to do. Sometimes I stuff meatballs with cheese. Sometimes I throw minced onion and garlic into the mix. This time however, I just mixed in some garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and dried italian seasoning into a pound of ground beef. Whenever I am making meatballs, I mix in a couple of eggs then add breadcrumbs as needed until the mixture is sticky, not wet. Of course you could pan fry your meatballs but consider putting them in a 325 degree oven on a baking sheet for 20 minutes or so.
Most of the time, I actually prefer the dark brown, evenly crisp exterior of baked meatballs to the extra crispy pan-fried meatballs. Also, I don’t have to babysit the meatballs the whole cooking time and I’m putting them in sauce before serving anyways. So I made a shit-ton of meatballs for spaghetti and leftovers. I considered doing a different pasta dish with the leftovers but then settled upon sandwiches. I just picked up a couple rolls from a local deli, cut them, and scooped out some of the bread on the top to create a nice pocket for the mozzarella. I also put some mozzarella on the bottom piece and put them both in the toaster oven until the cheese melted. Then I just scooped on the meatballs that had been simmering in some sauce and that’s it. I’m getting really hungry just looking at this picture again, those sandwiches were so good.
When I first saw Jeff Mauro’s recipe for Chicken Shawarma I thought of Marvel and The Avengers. There have been brief mentions of shawarma in some relatively recent Marvel movies, cartoons, and comics. For this reason alone I decided to make chicken shawarma as soon as possible. I slightly modified the recipe by using chicken breast instead of thighs and smoked paprika instead of normal paprika.
For those that don’t know, tahini is a paste made from sesame seeds and it’s good (I know its hard but try to hold back your admiration for that incredibly informative description of tahini). I picked up my tahini at a health food grocery store and it was next to the peanut butter oddly enough… or maybe it’s not odd I don’t know. I wanted to make a tahini sauce for some falafels that I was frying up.
This relish is so good, just combine the ingredients and it’s ready to go. I absolutely loved the oregano in this dish. Also, the lemon juice, olive oil, and juice from the tomato and cucumber combine to make a super juice that is incredible. I made it to accompany falafels and tahini sauce in a pita pocket. Gar was craving falafels that day. I went on my food network app to find a recipe for a tahini sauce and saw this relish recipe with a chicken shawarma recipe from Jeff Mauro. The recipe also called for fresh chopped parsley but I didn’t feel like having the mouth-feel of the little leafy bits so I left that out, although I’m sure the relish would taste great with the parsley. I saved some of the relish to use on chicken shawarma wraps. I could eat this relish with so many things, I’m thinking at one point I’ll put it on a burger with some feta cheese.
½ of a large english cucumber, chopped
½ of a small red onion, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, grated
2 tablespoons of good olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Recently I’ve been obsessed with putting everything on the grill. I’m sure one of the reasons is that the weather has been amazing the past week or so, staying mostly sunny and in the low to mid seventies. I have a small charcoal grill and a small propane grill. Mostly, I use the propane grill since its cleaner and easier. However, I appreciate charcoal for cooking something like an inch and a half thick cut rib-eye (mmm) and I really like arranging charcoal like one side of a sloping hill so I can clearly gauge and effectively utilize the varying levels of heat on the grill surface. The way I arrange charcoal would depend upon the grill I suppose.