Greekesque Food for Sammy

            This one goes out to my friend Robyn who I call Sammy. Sammy asked me to put together a couple of recipes for some Greek style food for her and here it is. Now I will say here that this is more of a blending of Mediterranean styles. The Skewers themselves are very much in the Greek style, the rice has a little more of a Moroccan thing going on but it is the closest thing I could find to what I think she was looking for while still using Greek flavours. Or at least what I think of as Greek flavours. Now I struggled a little bit trying to make this taste what I think of when I think of good Greek food and not what you would find in a mall. Mediterranean food by definition is great due to its simplicity and letting the ingredients shine through above and beyond any of the techniques that you employ. So this is Johnny telling you not to scrimp on the quality of the ingredients. So here we go. This one is for you Sammy.

Chicken Skewers and Rice Greek Style to the tune of Moving Right Along by the Alkaline Trio

(It’s a Muppets Song)

The Chicken Part:

3 cloves of garlic minced

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp oregano

1 ½ cups of plain yogurt

Salt and pepper

3 Chicken thighs, you can use the breast meat if you like but I find the thighs to be a little cheaper and a lot juicier. Cut the meat into moderately bite sized pieces.

3-4 skewers, I use the bamboo kind as they are cheap and easy to use. Make sure that you soak them in water for a while so that they won’t burn when you put the heat to them.

-Mix all of the ingredients, except the chicken, in a bowl and put aside (this is your marinade) until you have your meat taken care of.

-Skewer your chicken and then place in a baking pan, cover with the marinade, wrap in cling film, and put them in the fridge and let them work for at least 2 hours, over night is better.

-Heat up a large skillet and add some oil to prevent sticking. Toss in your skewers and brown them on all sides and cooking them all the way through. You now have your skewers, well played now on to the rice.

The Rice Part

4-5tbsp butter

1 onion cut into a small dice

4 cloves of garlic minced

1 cup of rice, I used a long grain variety

2 cups of chicken stock

A pinch of saffron, like half a pinch, this stuff is crazy expensive and a little goes a really long way.

8-10 pitted black or green olives the best that you can afford cut into quarters

So this is a pilaf sort of a thing. Now all that means is that the rice is fried in a fat, like butter, and then the liquid is added.

-Take your tiny bit of saffron and dry toast it in a small pan over medium heat just to wake it up a little bit. Toss it into a bowl and add 1 cup of the chicken stock and let it infuse.

-In a large sauce pan, over medium high heat, add ½ your butter, onions, and garlic until the onions are translucent.

-Toss in your rice and the rest of your butter and let it work for about 5-7 minutes stirring all the while.

-Add your stock including the saffron infused stuff and crank up the heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Let it go for 20 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. Remove from the heat, toss in your olives and recover and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir it up with a fork and you are good to go.

Enjoy Sammy I hope that these work out for you.