Middle Eastern Chicken Kebabs and Pecan Pie

This image is from skinnytaste.com. 

Upon seeing the above picture of Grilled Pesto Chicken and Tomato Kebabs in Pinterest, I immediately know that I’ve got to make it at home. So when my mom did not use the basil leaves she bought before leaving for my aunt’s house for an event I bought some chicken breast and bamboo skewers on our grocery trip last week. Unfortunately, most of the basil leaves had already wilted so I searched for another chicken kebab recipe. This search led me to make Middle Eastern Chicken Kebab of onceuponachef.com/.

Kebab is a dish composed of roasted or grilled skewered pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables. Traditionally, the meat used for kebab is lamb which happens to be the first type of kebab I had ever tasted. Ever since then, I generally order a kebab if it is offered in the menu of the restaurant I’m dining in. I just love the distinct flavour it has as a result of the combination of the various spices used in its marinade. This is actually not the first time I had cooked kebab but it has been a long time since the last time.

Preparing the marinade for the Chicken Kebabs.

I got in my pantry all the needed ingredients except the plain whole milk Greek yogurt so as an alternative I used evaporated milk and it still tasted good. My sister’s friend who is of Indian lineage liked the kebabs so much she asked for the recipe so she can also make it for her family. It had been a while since they had dishes like it according to her. She said it will remind her mom of her roots.

Middle Eastern Chicken Kebabs

Ingredients:

            1 cup plain whole milk Greek yogurt

            2 tbsp olive oil

            2 tsp paprika

            ½ tsp cumin

            1/8 tsp cinnamon

            1 tsp red pepper flakes

            zest from one lemon

            2 tbsp lemon juice

            1 and ¾ tsp salt

            5 garlic cloves, minced

            2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into cubes

            1 large red onion, cut into wedges

            Vegetable oil, for greasing the grill

Click here for the complete recipe.

To make our dinner a little more special, I also prepared Pecan Pie for desserts. Actually, J requested the pecan pie for Father’s Day. We bought the ingredients days before the said event. Sadly, I was already tired when we got home from our afternoon date at Nuvali so I postponed baking the pecan pie.

Pecan pie is a pie (obviously!) made mainly with pecan nuts and corn syrups though most recipes also call for white or brown sugar. It is in my and J’s top three favourite dessert (It is a 3-way tie between pecan pie, French macarons, and Conti’s Mango Bravo cake.). We love it with vanilla ice cream.

Baking pecan pie from scratch is actually quite easy. There are also few ingredients involved but pecan nuts are a little expensive so pecan pie is a treat reserved for special occasions. The really high sugar content of this delectable dessert is another reason not to have this regularly.

J made the pie crust while I prepared the filling. My niece Aki who now loves tinkering in the kitchen helped us. We followed Martha Stewart’s recipe for Pecan Pie.

Pecan Pie

Ingredients:

            4 large eggs

            1 cup light corn syrup

            1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

            ¼ cup granulated sugar

            4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

            1 tsp vanilla extract

            3 cups pecan halves

            1 disk of Basic Pie Dough

                                                Click here for the full recipe.

I omitted the ¼ cup granulated sugar to make my pecan pie a little less sinful. 

You are supposed to let the pie cool for 5-6 hours before serving but we love this treat so much we can only wait for 30 minutes. Let me end this post with this saying:

           

“Food tastes better when you eat it with your family.”

#xoxo