I'm Doug Callaghan from the Armenian kitchen comm and today we're making shish kebab at least what you probably call shish kebab Armenians called claw robots which means any grilled or roasted meat in Armenia today it's most likely pork which is abundant and less expensive than lamb but lamb is the traditional meat for shish kebab and it's the meat that we use I want to talk just a little bit about the meat if you go to your supermarket and you see those little packages of beef and they say all ready for kebab don't use it you might as well grow your beach sandals it's going to be unsure if you have to use beef pick a nicely marbled cut of course if you can get filet mignon that's terrific but the key is going to be no matter what meat you use properly seasoning and marinating it to make it taste like real shish kebab I cut this lamb myself I want to show you just a little bit of it it is nice and lean and fresh if you don't like lamb you're probably using bad lamb here is how you know if it's good lamb you smell it and you shouldn't be able to smell a thing if your lamb smells it's not good take it back get your money back everybody has a different recipe for shish kebab not only does every ethnic group have its own recipe every Armenian house has its own recipe and that's okay but the one thing that distinguishes Armenian shish kebab from anybody else's is we love onions we put onions in everything if you have nothing else put onions in your shish kebab it'll taste great this is how we make it I use onions and garlic parsley which is also very Armenian and I like to chop a tomato in by the way if you get a shish kebab recipe that goes on for two or three pages throw it away there's no need to overcomplicate this just toss these ingredients with the meat and then and your seasonings we like to use coriander because that's what our families used other Armenians don't use coriander some use cumin some use allspice some use well all three whatever you like is good for you but I'm using just freshly ground coriander mixed with some red pepper from Aleppo which is terrific stuff now you'll notice I didn't put any salt in there don't salt will just draw moisture out of the meat which is exactly the opposite of what you want to do now most important we usually use some sort of wine I like to use a red wine I also sometimes use a sweet red wine lamb stands up very well to a sweet wine but today we're going to use a particular Armenian favorite pomegranate juice there is nothing more Armenian than pomegranates and pomegranate juice works wonderfully with lamb it will really give this a wonderful flavor without making it overly sweet it's really going to enhance the flavor of the lamb itself I'm going to wait until the meat is on the skewers until just before i grill it before I brush on a little bit of olive oil to keep it from drying out when it's roasting and then just a sprinkling of sea salt you don't have to let the meat marinate overnight but I like to I think it really enhances the really tenderizes the meat but if you do mix it once or twice in that time every few hours every five or six hours give it a toss do it at night before you go to bed do it again in the morning and then it will be perfect by the time you put it on the grill through the magic of video it is now 24 hours later and I wanted you to get a look at this marinated meat I really wish you could smell it it is truly intoxicating now as I begin to put the meat on the skewers just a couple of important points there's wonderful onions and tomatoes here that I'm not going to throw away but you really can't serve them raw unless you don't like your guests so either cook them up in a pan on the stove or I like to wrap them in aluminum foil and just leave them in a corner of the grill okay the fire is hot I just put the meat on don't forget to keep turning it so that it doesn't burn in an Armenian home making the shish kabob is always dad's job and not just because it's made on the grill originally this was a soldiers meal in ancient times an army on the move could just liberate a few sheep slaughter them with their swords and cook them on those same swords over the campfire the question is whose army came up with this idea a Greek will tell you what was Alexander's army a Persian will tell you it was Darius I happen to be positive that it was King Dickon on the great of Armenia you want to argue with me okay but wait till after dinner here it is the completed shish kebab or Horovitz as you like come to the Armenian kitchen calm for this recipe and many more