A good friend of the family turned seventy recently, and to celebrate, his daughter rented an Escalade Stretch Limo to take us from the meeting place in Addison to a Southside Neighborhood hosting Croatianfest.
What I thought would be a sprawling City Festival actually ended up being a lively, one block affair that didn't disappoint. There were two different locations selling drinks: one, a Vodka and Lemonade stand which everyone except myself hit right away. I went straight to the big tent with a $20, that's where the beer cans were being sold. The great thing about this fest versus some closer to home (ahem, Swedish Days, for example) is that it was a free-for-all with drinks. Here at the Geneva Festivals, they give you a limited number of drink coupons and make you stay in the designated "play pen" to imbibe. So, even though the beers were $4 a piece - still not bad, considering that it was a fest - they weren't paternal about your consumption and would give you as many as you could buy. It was nice being able to put one in my pocket, sip on another and actually enjoy the Fest.
There were multiple food vendors, some selling American fare and others more ethnic fare in line with the home country. None of us had eaten much that day, had a
couple drinks on the ride over and were starving by the time we got settled in at the Fest. One vendor in particular really caught our attention: the Kabob vendor (pictured to the right is the son of one of the vendors, working diligently in the operation to keep hot coal under the grill - very cute spectacle). It was a big and busy operation with multiple grills fired up with lump hardwood charcoal, serving nothing but meat kabobs with Lamb and Pork. The line was long, and by the time we got to the order desk they'd sold out of Lamb. No biggie, in my opinion, I've never been big on lamb. We ordered about 16-20 of the pork kabobs, served with a thin slice of hearty-crusted white bread in each basket, and staked out an eating spot.
The sauce, rub and overall taste was fantastic, I thought. Was the meat cooked a little longer than it should have been? Maybe, but the Marinade was so pronounced in the meat that it more than compensated for the extra cook time (couldn't really pinpoint the sauce or the marinade, but it tasted like a tangy Mojo like I do with the Cubans). If I'd have not been in the presence of company that I didn't want to "turn off", I'd have plowed through as many as they'd have put in front of me. The picture to the left is what little was leftover.
I'd decided my next venture - and I'm always looking for new ones - was Pork Kabobs. At Jewel and the great La Huerta Market I grabbed a little over 2.5 lbs of Pork Loin, several Lemons, a Fresh Jug of OJ, honey, and some bamboo skewers.
To maximize the Marinade time, I got to work right away: the Mojo Marinade is really a simple one: .5 cup Oj, .5 cup Lemon/H20 combination, juice of a couple of limes, .25 cup Olive Oil, about 4 cloves of garlic, pinch of oregano. Whisking all of that together, I then went to rub the pork as well as I could with
Pullman Pork Chop Seasoning from the Spice House. Once I had a healthy coat of the rub on the pork I cubed it into several 1"x1" pieces, into a deep bowl, marinade over the top. Cover and let set for about 4 hours.
While the Chimney of Coal was coming up to temperature, I took the soaked skewers and began building the kabobs, meat only on most of them. My wife has been a champ with growing Roma Tomatoes in our backyard garden, and had just picked several newly ripe ones. For her, I sliced up a couple and added to her skewer.
After about two minutes on direct heat, I gave them a couple of turns and began slathering on the Teriyaki Sauce. Granted, there's nothing Croatian about Teriyaki, but I thought it would be good for a first run for good flavor. I found an online recipe that consisted of .5 cup soy sauce, .5 cup Sake, and a tbl of sugar. Just before putting the kabobs on, I warmed up with Teriyaki mixture with a little honey inside. It went over the meat nicely. Several applications later over indirect heat, all done.
Texture, good, but not great. Meat flavor with Rub, marinade and glaze, excellent, but room for improvement. I rounded out the grilling with a couple of split Lemons for garnish over the grill, ala Tim W and Mr. Flay. Nice touch.
The recipe was a hit, but next time, we'll tweak a bit. For starters, I want more of a crust on the meat, so I'll cook longer over direct heat. Not too long, mind you, just long enough to get that texture. Second, right before removing I want to glaze with a thin layer of honey for a little extra texture and flavor. And of course, to make Christina happy we'll add veggies this time.
Stay tuned for round two.....
Jeff H.
