As I said last week, Tim hosted a mini Peace Corps Armenia reunion this weekend in mer nation's capital (i.e. DC)... having practiced some Armenian-style cooking last week, we were pretty well prepared to host the metz kev (big party) for a horovatz (BBQ).
Still using "Simply Armenian" by Barbara Ghazarian as the basis for our meal, we repeated the beet salad and minted cucumber and yogurt soup, improved upon the lamehjun by cooking it on a pre-heated baking stone at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes so it crisped up evenly all around, and made a couple new dishes to make sure everybody got enough to eat: grilled lamb skewers and pilaf. Recipes after the jump!Lamb Skewers
For the lamb skewers, Tim picked up 4 lbs of cubed grass-fed leg of lamb from a butcher in Alexandria. We marinated it overnight in this marinade before skewering it and grilling it:
2 onions, quartered
3 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/4 cup fresh rosemary, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon course ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
Rice Pilaf (I made 3 times the recipe for 10 people and had extra)
1 nest fine curly vermicelli
1 tablespoon butter
1.5 cups chicken broth
1 cup long grain white rice
1. Break the vermicelli nest into small pieces into a saucepan, add the butter
2. Over low heat, stir the vermicelli until just golden, remove from heat
3. In a separate saucepan, bring the broth to a boil
4. Pour the boiling broth over the browned vermicelli
5. Add the rice and give the pot a big stir
6. Cover and simmer until broth is absorbed, about 14 minutes
7. Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes before serving