Wow, was it hot enough last week? When it gets that hot, choosing something for dinner can be kind of difficult. I mean, who wants to even eat much of anything in that heat? With the temperatures that high, I will often opt for a nice salad for dinner, but the other day I had a piece of lamb that needed to be cooked.
I thought about just cooking the lamb and saving it for sandwiches, but then somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered seeing a picture of a teriyaki kabob with pineapple and that started the brain working. Since I love fruits in all my salads, especially pineapple, I started thinking about something besides teriyaki. I had some pecan mint pesto that I usually make for lamb and thought with just a little tweak, it also would make a great marinade.
The reason I needed to tweak the recipe a little is that I normally use the pesto for a spread or dipping sauce almost. I place it on the plate with a little hot lamb au jus to really bring out the pesto’s flavor, with the sliced lamb over that, or I use it for sandwich spreads. To use it as a real marinade, there needs to be some type of vinegar or acid added to start the process of breaking down the meat, which also tenderizes it.
With this in mind, all I did was take the same pecan mint pesto recipe I wrote about a while back and subtracted a few cloves of garlic and added vinegar, honey (you also could use other sweeteners like brown or white sugar or maple syrup), slightly more oil, and I also added some chili paste for a little zip.
As for the leftovers, I used a flour tortilla and some lettuce with a little of the pesto to make some great wraps for lunch. Although I used lamb, you can use whatever meat you like. Chicken would be awesome, but I would probably use rice vinegar instead of red wine. I also left off the other usual veggies you see on kabobs like peppers and onions to keep it wicked simple and lighter, but of course you can add them if you want. Enjoy.
Pineapple Lamb Kabobs
1 lb. lamb cut into about ¾-inch cubes (I used leg but other cuts will work)
1 pineapple, cut into ¾-inch cubes
14 mushrooms with stems, cut across bottom of cap
Pesto
1 bunch of mint
½ bunch of basil
2 cloves garlic
1/8 C pecans, slightly toasted
1/8 C grated Parmigiano or other hard cheese
¼ C extra virgin olive oil
3 T red vinegar
3-4 T honey
2 t chili paste
Salt and pepper to taste
Place the herbs half the oil, nuts, cheese and garlic in the blender. Slowly add the rest of the ingredients to taste. The consistency should be a paste and not to runny, so add the oil a little at a time and season with salt and pepper to taste. Take half the pesto and thin it out with a little more oil. Marinade the lamb for 6 to 8 hours or overnight.
Add the mushrooms an hour or so before cooking. Don’t marinade the pineapple; you want to keep the sweet flavor of it unmasked. Soak the skewers for half an hour. Place two pieces each of lamb and pineapple alternating, with a mushroom cap on the ends. Grill to medium rare or desired doneness.
Trained under Master Chef Anton Flory at Top Notch Resort in Stowe, Vt., Smitty is a personal chef specializing in dinner parties, cooking classes and special events. For more information and archived copies of Stir it Up, visit chefsmitty.com. Smitty welcomes your questions and comments at smitty@chefsmitty.com or (530) 412-3598.
