Friday, July 10, 2009

A Little Armenia

I live in city in which I am the minority to Armenians. I love this. Every half block there is a another family owned Armenian restaurant with homemade lavash bread, rich hummus, and succulent beef kabobs.

This is my (sad?) attempt to recreate some of these foods.

Tzatziki Sauce:
1 cup fat free plain yogurt
Freshly squeezed juice from 2 lemons
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
dill. dill. and more dill.
salt
garlic
paprika

Makes 4 servings. Approx 42 calories each.

Cut. Squeeze. Mix. Eat.






Beef Kabobs with Yogurt Sauce:
1 lb lean sirloin steak (boneless)
1/2 cup o% Greek Yogurt
Freshly squeezed juice from 2 lemons
Dill
Curry Powder
Garlic Powder
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
(How much of each spice you ask? Well, I do equal parts of all. Then add to your own taste. Sorry, my laziness does not allow me to measure my spices.)

Note - I do not have a BBQ or grill (apartments in LA are not very conducive to them). Therefore, instead of grilling these kabobs, I am forced to cook them in a frying pan. If you can avoid this, please do. And if you have a BBQ in your backyard, I prefer you keep this information to yourself. I'd rather not cry today.


Directions:
Cut steak into 1 inch cubes
In mixing bowl, mix yogurt, lemon juice, and all spices.
Combine all. Mix.
I let the meat sit in the sauce over night. But if in short of time, this probably isn't necessary.
In large frying pan (non-stick), cook meat over high temp until cooked to your "color" preference.

Serving size: 4. Approx 230 calories each.

Serve with warm lavash bread, your already made Tzatziki sauce, yellow or jasmin rice and hummus. Welcome to my home: Glendale.