Flavor Town

Welcome to Flavor Town!  Recently we ate at a local Moroccan restaurant, Babylon, and were blown away by the flavor-packed food we enjoyed. On the drive home from the beach yesterday (sun kissed and freckle-nosed, which was perfect and much needed btw) we had 3 hours to drum up ideas for dinner.  We actually only had about 2 hours and change because I slept for about 45 minutes of the trip.  Chuck says I have a mild case of narcolepsy….that’s up for debate.  Anyways, we wanted to create a meal that packed a flavor punch that was similar to our experience at Babylon.  We stopped by the local butcher, The Meat House, and picked up pre-diced leg of lamb and a large chicken breast – kabobs it is. 

If you know me, I can’t just have meat; it needs to be accompanied with some type of sauce.  So, I took an Indian-Mediterranean-Fusion approach to this meal.  Let’s start with the sauces:

Tzatziki (aka.  Cucumber Dipping Sauce)

2 cups low-fat Greek Yogurt

Splash Lemon Juice

Drizzle of EVOO

S&P

Minced Garlic

Dried Dill

2 cucumbers

It is very hard for me to tell you exact measurements because 90% of the time I don’t measure…so follow your flavor instinct when mixing – tasting along the way.  Mix all ingredients together except for cukes, place in a bowl and store in fridge until ready to use (a few hours). 

Seed the cucumbers, give them a rough chop and place in strainer with a little salt.  You want to extract the water from the veggies so it doesn’t water down your dip.  Occasionally give the strainer a good shake.  I suggest letting the cukes drain for an hour or two.  Mix in cucumbers about 30 minutes prior to serving. 

Roasted Red Pepper

1 jar roasted red peppers (saves a lot of work!)

Red Curry Seasoning

Sriracha Chili Sauce

Ketchup

Squirt of Honey

Crush Red Pepper Flakes

Place peppers in a food processor or Ninja (small, compact and powerful) with a squirt of ketchup, chili sauce and honey – blend away.  Add red curry powder and red pepper flakes and mix.  Keep mixing and tasting.  We wanted a sweet yet spicy dip.  Chill until ready to use.

Now, this is the part where your counter will continue to get filled with spice bottles, mixing bowls and a big ole mess.  Don’t worry, there is plenty of clean up time while the meat is marinating.  I left the lamb up to Chuck, he a bit of Googling and used the base of an Ina Garten Recipe to get himself started.

Lamb Kabobs

Low Fat Greek Yogurt

EVOO

Lemon Juice

Dried Oregano

Dried Thyme

Dried Rosemary

Minced Garlic

S&P

Red Pepper Flakes

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  Season lamb with S&P, Red Pepper Flakes and toss in yogurt concoction.

For the Chicken Kabobs I took the kitchen sink approach:

Dice large pieces of chicken breast and place in a bowl.  Season with the following then drizzle EVOO and let sit and marry:

S&P

Tumeric

Cumin

Red Pepper Flakes

Cinnamon

Red Curry Powder

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Dried Parsley

Lemon Juice

Throw the kabobs on the grill, uncover your dipping sauced and enjoy with grilled pita or in my case grilled Naan. 

Welcome to Flavor Town folks...y’all come back again soon!