Recipe: Mediterranean Kabobs

A few weeks ago my Elders quorum  [1] organized a clothing swap activity for the ward. Almost at the last minute, the Bishop asked that there be light refreshments there. So I ran to the Fresh Market (formerly Albertson's) which is only two blocks away from our meetinghouse to buy some cookies. While I was there, I saw some grilling cheese. Intrigued at the possibility of being able to grill cheese, I bought some. But then I had to figure out a recipe to eat it with. This is what I came up with.

Okay. It's probably inaccurate to call these Mediterranean since I have no idea whether they make kabobs like this in Southern Europe or Northern Africa. But since the grilling cheese is Greek (at least, with a brand name like Yanni, I assume that it's Greek), I went ahead and named this recipe the way that I did.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 chicken breasts, cubed
• 1 bottle marinade [2]
• 4 red potatoes
• 3 bell peppers [3]
• 1 package white button mushrooms
• 1 medium onion
• 1 brick Yanni grilling cheese
• a handful of snow peas or sugarsnap peas

DIRECTIONS

[4]

Save some of the marinade for basting. Marinate the chicken in the rest of the marinade for at least 30 minutes.

Cut the peppers and onion into one-inch squares. Cut the peas and mushrooms in half. Cut the potatoes into ½-inch thick one-inch squares. Cut the grilling cheese into 1-inch cubes.

Alternate threading the meat, cheese, and veggies onto skewers. Since it was cold outside, rather than use our grill, I set the oven to broil. I lay the kabobs across a broiling pan and then set it on the bottom rack of the oven. Cook for 5 minutes, flip, and cook for 5 more minutes.[5]

The first time I tried this, the cheese was melting and falling off the skewers after the first five minutes. So much for the cheese being grillable. Thus the second time I cooked them directly on the broiler pan for 4–5 minutes (with a flip halfway through) instead of putting them on the kabobs. I think this was a better alternative. Leann put it on toasted bread and really liked it.[6] She thinks it tasted like Mozzarella while I thought it was more like Romano.

This makes about 12 kabobs.

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Notes:

[1] Elder and Bishop are offices in the Priesthood, which is authority given by God to men to act in His name here on the Earth. It is only found in the LDS (Mormon) Church. If you're unsure why we need the authority of God to perform His work, I recommend you visit here and here, where you can learn more about LDS beliefs concerning the Priesthood of God. If you have more questions, ask and maybe I'll do a full post on the topic.

[2] I used Kroger Herb and Garlic 30-Minute Marinade, which is shown in the picture above.

[3] I used one green, one red, and one yellow.

[4] You'll note that this time I put the raw meat on a plastic cutting board.

[5] This strikes a balance between undercooking the potatoes and overcooking the onions and peas. The potatoes will be just a slight bit chewey/starchy and the onions and peas will be just beginning to burn on the edges.

[6] She was inspired to do this by a scene from the movie Wives and Daughters. If you're timid about trying new flavors of cheese, see my post Cheese.