Preserved Lemon & Baharat Pork Kebabs

I'm still cooking my way through some of 2016's best cookbooks and this recipe comes from Sirocco by Sabrina Ghayour. If you are not familiar with Lebanese cuisine, Baharat refers to a spice blend similar to a masala in Indian cuisine. Most families in Lebanon have their own secret baharat recipe but you can make your own easily at home, or you may purchase one if you have a vast international section in your grocery. 

Here's my recipe for baharat:

• Yeilds: 2 cups (half for enough to make the kebabs)
• 4 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons ground coriander
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons ground cloves
• 3 tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 4 tablespoons paprika

Directions: Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and transfer to an airtight container. 

These kebabs pair perfectly with the Radish, Dried Fig & Apple Salad from Ghayour's book, which I shared with you earlier this week. You will want to marinade the pork for several hours or overnight to develop even more flavor. 

Preserved Lemon & Baharat-Marinated Pork Loin Kebabs

Ingredients:

2 pork tenderloins, Cut into 2 inch pieces

vegetable oil

For the Marinade:

3 heaping Tbs baharat spice blend

2 garlic cloves, crushed

3 Tbs. Greek yogurt

4 Tbs olive oil

5 preserved lemons, seeded and finely chopped

sea salt & pepper

Directions:

Place all the marinade ingredients in a large bowl, or zip top bag for easier clean up, and mix until very well combined. Add pork to the marinade and massage marinade into meat for 2-3 minutes. Place in the fridge for a couple of hours, overnight is best. 

When ready to cook, bring the meat to room temperature. Heat a grill pan or grill to medium heat. Thread meat onto skewers leaving a small amount of space between each piece of meat. Depending on the size of your skewers you may only fit 4 pieces onto one skewer. 

Drizzle the meat with vegetable oil and place on the grill pan. Cook on all four sides for 2-3 minutes each side. Let pork rest for 5 minutes before serving. 

Radish, Dried Fig & Apple Salad

Every year one of my favorite cooking websites Food52.com has a cookbook competition of the year's best cookbooks called The Piglet. They do it bracket style like college basketball's March Madness. This year, I decided to get each cookbook, try out some of the recipes and share them with you.

First up is the book Sirocco by Sabrina Ghayour. It is a beautiful book with incredible pictures of nearly every recipe. The recipes are full of spice and flavors of the Middle East - Persian, Lebanese, and Mediterranean to name a few. While some of the dishes really pushed me out of my comfort zone in terms of flavor profiles and ingredients, there are many enticing and delicious recipes that I have already tried and loved.

The Radish, Dried Fig & Apple Salad in Ghayour's book is not only beautiful to look at, it is bursting with flavor. The sweetness of the dried figs and the crisp, tartness of the apples pair perfectly. This salad is great for a weeknight dinner because it so easy and simple to prepare, but it is stunning enough to serve at a fancy dinner party. Since our family ate it on a weeknight I halved the recipe to make 4 servings, the recipe normally serves 6-8 generously.

Radish, Dried Fig & Apple Salad
Ingredients:
8 ounces dried California or Turkish figs, stems removed, quartered
2 Braeburn apples, quartered, cored and thinly sliced
5 ounces radishes, thinly sliced
2 cups pomegranate seeds
2 Tbs. olive oil
4 Tbs. pomegranate molasses 
3 1/2 ounces mixed greens

Combine the fig, apple and radish slices and the pomegranate seeds in a large bowl. Dress them with the olive oil and pomegranate molasses and toss to coat everything.Add the greens to the dressed ingredients and mix again - there should be sufficient dressing to coat the leaves without making the salad too mushy. Serve piled high on a flat platter.