Grilled Lamb Kofte & Safran Pilaf

Last weekend was three days weekend for Independence day. We did lots of fun activities but one of the thing we have to do during Independence weekend is BBQ.  Instead of regular hamburger and hot dog, we decided to have Middle Eastern BBQ with Lamb Kofte (Ground Lamb kebab). I mixed lots of cilantro, mint, garlic, onion and ginger with ground lamb and add some kebab spice mix. Also, corn is cheap in summer so we grilled corn. 

I love this ground lamb kebab. Ever time I go to Middle Eastern restaurant, I order this dish. I thought I didn't like lamb too much but with herbs and spices, I realized that I love Lamb. I think normally, you add parsley instead of cilantro but I had a bunch of cilantro in my fridge so I used that. It came out really good. The only thing is that it is quite difficult to grill. When we try to flip it over, some of the meat fall off the skewers. I wonder if there is any good way to avoid this. 

When it is done grilling, I sprinkle more cilantro on top with some sumac. I love sprinkle sumac on some meat. It has some lemony taste to it. 

I also made some rice to eat with. This is called "Zarda Pulao" from India. I made this rice before and loved it so I decided to make it again. (Click here for the previous post about Zarda Pulao.)

This pilaf has nuts, dried currant, Cinnamon, cardamon, saffron and some other spices and it is very very tasty. It was supposed to be really sweet but I didn't want to make it too sweet so I cut the sugar amount to 1/3 of what it required in the recipe. 

I made Lamb Kofte a bit spicy so this sweet rice was perfect with the spicy Lamb. Also, the corn was really sweet and crisp. The meal was so good, it was so difficult to stop eating.

After the dinner, we went to our neighbour's place and watched Independence day fireworks on TV. There are some people doing fireworks in neighborhood also. I thought fireworks are illegal here in NY. I wonder how people get fireworks. Do they go all the way to different state to buy them? Anyway, fireworks on TV was beautiful and we had a great time. 

By the way, did anyone watched World Cup on Saturday? Germany did pretty well on that game. My husband and I went to a local pub to cheer Germany with some other Germans. It was very exciting and lot of fun! I hope they will do well again on Wednesday.

Chicken Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing

This is an easy pasta salad using store bought Italian Dressing. Originally, I found this recipe on the back of Pepperidge Farm Crouton Box and I make this sometimes in summer. The recipe uses less ingredients but I modified little bit by using what I had in my fridge and also I used the leftover roast chicken from the other night.

Chicken Pasta Salad
Ingredients
Roasted Chicken  200g (Cut into small pieces)
Shot Pasta            350g (I like tri-color Rotini for this)
Sun Dried Tomato   about 5 (cut into thin slices)
Grape Tomatoes      about 10 (cut into half)
Calamata Olives     about 10 (slice them)
Cereley                   2 stalks (cut into slices)
Basil leaves            about 10 (slice them)
Italian Dressing      2/3 cup
Parmesan Cheese   (Optional) as much as you like

1. Boil Pasta and let it cook a little bit.
2. Add all the ingredients above and cool it in the fridge. Sprinkle Shaves Parmesan Cheese on top before you serve.

Isn't this super easy? I like that I can use whatever I have in my fridge. Since I made lots of them. I have some leftover for bring it to the beach this weekend :-)

I think this is also great for a pot luck party when you don't have time and power to cook something complicated.

Today is Germany vs Argentina game. We are going to watch the game with our friends at a local bar. It will be a lot of fun!

Enjoy your 4th of July!

Chili Con Carne with Ground Beef and Kidney Beans

My Husband request Chili Con Carne the other day so I decided to try making it. When I first moved to California, I had a few roommate and one of them used to make this killer Chili Con Carne. I wanted to make something similar to his Chili Con Carne. He used chuck of meat for his Chili Con Carne but I had some ground beef in the freezer which I wanted to use so I used ground beef instead. I searched recipe on internet and found one which looks good and easy.

First, I sautéed vegetables with all sorts of spices then add ground beef and some canned chopped tomatoes and simmer for one hour.

At the end, I added some canned Kidney Beans. I don't like this kind of beans but I thought maybe Chili Con Carne has to have beans so I added some. not too much :-)

We ate this with some Fritos chips since that was how my roommate used to eat it with. Now, I remember that he used to sprinkle chopped onion, chopped cilantro and some shredded cheese on top. I forgot all about it. Oh well, maybe next time I will remember this.

It was good but it kind of taste like meat sauce for pasta. I think something is missing. I don't know what.     It was not really close to what my roommate used to make. Oh, I wish I asked him for the recipe. He was a great cook. I got Linguini with clam sauce recipe from him and love it but I didn't get this Chili Con Carne recipe. Too bad... well, I guess I have to keep trying and make it close to his Chili Con Carne.

By the way, my tomatoes in my container garden is getting red. I might be able to harvest some of them this weekend. This weekend is Independence day weekend and three days weekend. All of America will BBQ during this weekend. I think we should also BBQ. I am thinking maybe Lamb Kofta and make it Middle Eastern BBQ!