InternationalCelebrating the Fourth of July with an Iranian kebob
by Vincent Lima
Published: Thursday July 02, 2009 in Food
Burning grape wood to get embers for joojeh kabob, Yerevan, July 2, 2009. Armenian Reporter
Yerevan - At least I don't have to water the garden tonight.
The kids know not to expect me home for dinner on Thursday nights. There's a newspaper to wrap up. But this Thursday night, July 2, was different. To wrap up the paper, I actually needed to be home for dinner.
The food column of the Fourth of July edition seemed like the right place to focus on barbecues. I would offer up details on my favorite barbecue dish and would invite readers to send in their barbecue experiences, tips, recipes, photos, videos, and so on from the Fourth or any other day.
I love joojeh kabab -
Iranian-style chicken kebab. It's all about childhood memories of the wonderful
aroma of the dish. The late Margaret
Shaida, a close family friend, described that shared memory thus in her
wonderful book, The Legendary Cuisine of Persia
"If ever proof were required that atmosphere is an important part of the joy of eating, it is to eat joojeh kabab in a Persian garden restaurant in Tehran on a summer's evening. The breeze from the snowcapped mountains just north of the city is a refreshing relief after the awful heat of the day. The sound of splashing fountains and tumbling streams drowns the distant roar of traffic. The scent of jasmine fills the air, except for the occasional drifting aroma of grilled chicken. The normal sounds of a restaurant are lost in the soft night air, and any cigarette smoke is filtered through the bowers of vines that give a pleasant privacy."
On the ninth floor
For the first few months we were in Armenia, we lived in an awesome apartment that, however, had no working oven. We would often call the nearby Iranian restaurant and order joojeh kabab to go. We'd cook rice and make some salad at home. It was good, but the absence of atmosphere took the magic of the dish away.
Now we have a garden, and with the cool breeze from the Hrazdan River gorge, joojeh kabob is a magical dish again. And it's fun to make.
You start with joojeh - young hen - if you can find it. Easy enough in Armenia. And the high-end supermarkets carried it when we lived in New Jersey. If you can't find it, try Cornish game hen. Or chicken.
I cut it up, let it marinate for a few hours in onion and lemon (which, I should mention, came in our weekly delivery from Armenia's organic farming cooperative, Green Lane), and it's ready for the fire.
Here in Armenia, the practice is to burn wood. So early this evening, I started a fire and waited for the wood to burn down to embers. (I happen to have a stash of grape wood, which I am told is the best choice.) In the meantime, I threaded the hen onto skewers and added the secret ingredient - liquid saffron - to the marinade.
Add rainwater
The embers were ready and the barbecue got a glorious start. Then it started raining. Then it started pouring. And it kept pouring.
So I had to bring the almost-but-not-quite-cooked skewers of hen inside. The perfect photograph I wanted to offer you, gentle reader, did not materialize. I took the hen off the skewers and stuck it in the oven for a few minutes. It turned out okay.
I'm not too disappointed. It was lovely to spend a Thursday night with the family.
And as I said, I didn't have to water the garden.
Share your barbecue stories, photos, and videos
Are you one of the guys who sweats it out over the grill all day at church picnics? Do you have the secret to making khorovadz taste perfect on a gas grill? And, pray tell, what do you do when it rains and pours while you're barbecuing? Share your BBQ secrets with our readers. Write arts@reporter.am
Margaret's Joojeh Kebab
For each person:
1 whole young hen
Marinade
½ medium onion
juice of ½ lemon
salt and pepper
Basting sauce
½ teaspoon liquid saffron (see below) mixed with the marinade
1. Cut off the wings and legs and cut the legs into two joints. Cut out the backbone, flatten the breast as much as possible, and cut across into two pieces. (I use kitchen shears.) Wash, pat dry, and put in a bowl. Grate the onion over the chicken pieces, add the lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and mix well till the chicken pieces are all coated. Leave to marinate for at least three hours, preferably overnight.
2. Thread the chicken joints onto a fine skewer (wing, drumstick, thigh, two breasts, thigh, drumstick, and wing).
3. Grill gently, basting frequently with the marinade juices mixed with the saffron.
4. When cooked through, slip the chicken off the skewers onto a warm plate. Serve with lemon juice, bread, and fresh herbs.
Liquid saffron
Basically: grind saffron pistils to a fine powder and mix with warm water. Before you start, make sure the saffron is completely dry. In a tiny mortar (or a small rounded bowl and a teaspoon), drop 20 to 30 pistils and add five or six grains of sugar. Crush it into a fine powder. Mix a few teaspoons of water and let it sit until it's deep orange.
