Pissed As Hell and Marinating Anyway

This has been one of those mornings in which every so often I sighed deeply and said, "I don't know." Ernie would look at me, give a smaller sigh and said, "I know." We did this for quite awhile before Ernie pointed out the ridiculousness of it all.

Lord I love that man.

I'm feeling the weight of the world today and I'm pissed as hell at life. We are all o.k...but someone we love deeply is facing challenges and I feel helpless to assist and frustrated and, well, I'm just pissed as hell at life. I don't think there's actually a better way to say it.

So with nothing else pleasant to report I will tell you about my marinade frenzy this week. Sunday I made a batch of my sesame noodles and had Ernie buy a cheap sirloin steak at the store. It wasn't huge so I cut it into chunks and marinated it with cut up vegetables (peppers/carrots/onion/green onion). We let it sit a few hours and then grilled it and it was pretty damn great. I don't know why I've always been a bit kebob averse. I made up the marinade but it was kind of a basic Asian thing.

Cynthia's Not Terribly Creative But Good Made Up Marinade

one inch piece of ginger, grated
4 garlic cloves, grated
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup agave nectar (or honey)
2-3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons Chinese chili oil paste

Oh, and I may thrown a dash of lemon juice in too!

The next night we had some frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs we defrosted. I asked Ernie to marinate them in the morning so they could sit all day. I had planned to have them with tabouleh but at the end of the day that seemed too ambitious so I pulled some pita bread out of the freezer and made sandwiches with the grilled chicken and onion and put together a napa cabbage/tomato/onion/turnip coleslaw kind of thing for the side.

I found the marinade at Once Upon a Chef. This was UTTERLY delicious. I cubed the meat, oops...Ernie cubed the meat, and did it with red onion just as it suggests. It was really marvelous. Of course right after he started the grill Owen decided to make chocolate chip cookies for dessert and somehow the grill got too low and it got late so we pulled them off the grill and put them in a cast iron grill pan that was really hot and then the kitchen got so smokey I thought we would die so as I was flapping the air I yelled at Ernie to just shove them in the oven and shut the door. Yes, it felt just like that sentence. We let them sit a bit and they came out perfect. The only problem is I'm not sure how to replicate that process. Anyway...here you go:

Middle Eastern Chicken Kebabs

By Jennifer Segal

Servings: 4-6

Prep Time: 20 Minutes

Cook Time: 15 Minutes

Total Time: 35 Minutes, plus 8 hours to marinate

Ingredients

• 1 cup plain whole milk Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (reduce to 1/2 teaspoon if you don't like heat)
• Zest from one lemon
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, from one lemon
• 1-3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 2-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (or 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts), trimmed of any excess fat and cut into large bite-sized pieces
• 1 large red onion, cut into wedges
• Vegetable oil, for greasing the grill

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt, olive oil, paprika, cumin, cinnamon, red pepper flakes, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, pepper and garlic.
2. Thread the chicken onto metal skewers, folding if the pieces are long and thin, alternating occasionally with the red onions. Be sure not to cram the skewers. (Note: You'll need between 6-8 skewers.) Place the kebabs on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Spoon or brush the marinade all over the meat, coating well. Cover and refrigerate at least eight hours or overnight.
3. Preheat the grill to medium-high heat. To grease the grill, lightly dip a wad of paper towels in vegetable oil and, using tongs, carefully rub over the grates several times until glossy and coated. Grill the chicken kebabs until golden brown and cooked through, turning skewers occasionally, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer the skewers to a platter and serve.

Last night I came home to a new Bon Appetit in my mailbox. Oh bliss. I sat and paged through it outside until we decided it wasn't really all that delightful outside. I knew we  had leftover weird napa cabbage coleslaw from the night before, corn on the cob, and a couple of thin pork steaks in the refrigerator. I adapted it from their more formally designated Pork Cutlet with Beet and Carrot Salad.

Bon Appetit's Honey Turmeric Marinade

• 2 garlic cloves, finely grated
• 1½ teaspoons finely grated peeled turmeric or ½ ground turmeric
• ½ cup plain whole-milk yogurt
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 tablespoons (or more) fresh lemon juice

Again, I didn't have honey so used agave nectar. What I liked about this is that they said it only needs to sit 10 minutes. I did it on the cast iron grill pan because it was late and I was grumpy (hmmm....is there a theme here) but at least I didn't smoke us out this time.

And there you have it....pissed at the world but marinating anyway....

Oh, and on a brighter note, we did harvest the first cherry tomatoes and they were good enough that I slapped my leg over and over in excitement. See? It's never all bad.