Pork Kebabs and Fennel Orange Salad

Pork Kebabs and Fennel Orange Salad
April 27th

Although I cook all kinds of things, my cooking is still most heavily influenced by Mediterranean food (particularly Spain, southern France, and Italy). It’s something that I’ve strayed away from more in the last couple of years, but it still is a huge influence and draw for me. The current issue of Saveur magazine has a great article on the cooking of Cyprus, which includes a great pork kebab recipe. Kebabs are found throughout the Mediterranean, but you don’t see them made from pork as often as from other meat, like lamb. But many countries, like Spain and Cyprus, that were under Ottoman or Muslim rule (where pork isn’t eaten), do have recipes for pork kebabs were the marinade shows Ottoman and Muslim influences. The Saveur recipe uses herbs like oregano and thyme, but also uses sweeter spices like cinnamon and cumin. Like most recipes I look at, I didn’t exactly follow it and did make a few modifications.

Many kebabs call for leaner cuts of meat, but there’s a lot to be said for fattier, tougher cuts like shoulder, provided you marinate them long enough and then cook them long enough and over low enough heat. Leaner cuts can get overcooked and dry out pretty easily, even if they’re marinated (how many dry kebabs have you had in your time?). I used pork shoulder for mine and then grilled them outside over moderate heat. I kept them pretty far from the heat after an initial sear and let them cook for a total of about 45 minutes or so. The meat was still juicy and wasn’t tough.

On the side I made a salad of shaved fennel, oranges, black olives, lemon juice and olive oil and some roasted some potatoes with lemon zest, oregano and olive oil. (Oranges and black olives are amongst my favorite flavor combinations. The sweetness and slight acidity of the oranges marries perfectly with the salty, brininess of the olives). I served yogurt on the side for the meat (and the potatoes too actually). I had picked up a Butte Creek Organic IPA and had that as well. I’ve liked all of the beers I’ve had from Butte Creek, particularly their pilsner (at last year’s Oregon Brewer’s Festival) and their porter. The IPA is good but has a pretty distinctive Victory malt note to it that I’m not that fond. (A lot of people clearly are if sales of New Belgium’s Fat Tire are any indication.) Despite the slightly heavy handed Victory malt note, it’s still a nice beer. It’s got good hop bitterness and flavor but isn’t over the top. It leans a little more to malt than many IPA’s do (not a bad thing in my opinion). The beer was great with the food, but frankly, the kebabs were so amazing that most any beer would have been seemed great with it.