Chicken Kebab & Mango Lassi (CwQ:3)

My son enjoys going to Indian restaurants for two things: mango lassi and chicken kebab (which I've also heard called chicken tikka—erroneously as it turns out). He also likes mango ice cream, but that will come later in the summer, when I've dusted off my frozen dessert maker. A lassi, for those who don't know, is basically a smoothie. There seem to be several variations: with milk, without; with sugar, without. All use a yogurt base. In researching lassi ingredients, I discovered a consensus about the type of mango as well. The variety of choice is the Alphonso mango, which is smaller and more yellow than those large, red-orange-green ovals to which I'm more accustomed. It is also less stringy, less pithier. Although I vastly prefer fresh to canned fruits, I went to my local specialty food shop and purchased a can of Alphonso mango slices in syrup. (They had mango puree also, which is what I would select the next time.) The other ingredients were already in my refrigerator.

Now, I have to say that I am generally a recipe-follower. My method is usually to adhere strictly to a recipe, make it repeatedly, and only then begin to riff on the ingredients, timidly at first, sometimes boldly. But being in the kitchen with my son is loosening me up, in part because I do not want him to develop my own nasty perfectionist streak. He himself can be a bit rigid at times—he seems to have an innate sense of order, of there being rules in the world and wanting the rules to apply to everyone equally; his radar is highly tuned to justice in this way. But still, he's six, and his basic understanding of how things are put together in the kitchen is incredibly simple. He seems to operate on two basic principles: One, ingredients are treated equally and are best dumped together in one bowl and stirred. Two, if you like an ingredient, then more of it is always better. He loves the flavor of mango (mango smoothies, mango ice cream, dried mango, but oddly, he does not eat fresh mango chunks), so of course, at his continual urging for "More mango!" we ended up using the entire 30-ounce can in our batch of lassi. A bit much, so in the future we'll recalibrate the recipe. But the point for the moment is that we worked without a recipe, winging the quantities of yogurt, milk, mango, and ice. I decided to leave out any sweetener, since the canned mangoes had been in syrup (which we drained). And the result was quite good. Thicker and more mango-y than what we typically get at our local Indian restaurant, but refreshing just the same. Q gave it a thumbs up.

About the lassi process, there's one other note. It is telling, perhaps, that when faced with the giant can of mangoes, Q didn't know how we were supposed to open it. It's not that we never use canned food—we do, but not that often. Digging in our kitchen's "odds and ends" drawer, he asked "What's a can opener?" I showed him where it was and how it works. Bless him, he wanted to open that can himself and was determined to flex his muscles. At six, the macho, fix-it impulse has already set in. He's a strong guy, but I got a reminder of his age and strength relative to an adult when it became a real struggle. It took me pinching the handles of the opener together and my son turning the lever with both hands for us to get to the point where he could reasonably be said to have opened the can "himself." After that, the rest was easy. Scraping out cups of yogurt, pouring milk, adding ice . . . and Q even managed to work through the noise of the blender, about which he has complained in the past. I'm sure this had something to do with my letting him work the buttons and do all the periodic tasting.

The thing we couldn't get past this weekend was my son's distaste for getting his hands good and messy in the kitchen, so prepping the chicken kebab involved some negotiating. In the end, despite my son's initial desire to skewer the chicken, and despite my coaxing, we divvied up the tasks thus: Measuring ingredients and whisking them together to make the marinade became my son's job. We have a funny-looking miniature whisk with a handle in the shape of an egg with a beak and a vexed look on its face; this added interest and personality, for my son ended up voicing commentary for the egg. He also put the clove of garlic through the press—another novel implement for him to use to test his physical prowess. I handled the dirty work: cutting up the chicken (a task that would have been mine in any event), plus getting my hands full of cold yogurt marinade as I threaded pieces onto the wooden skewers. I asked my son why, when he likes to smoosh Play-Doh through his fingers, do finger-painting, and get dirty in a sandbox, does he have an aversion to getting his hands gunked up in the kitchen? He said he didn't know, but then mentioned something about things being too cold, or too hot—he also mentioned germs (which has been a big topic lately, what with swine flu cases in his school). I decided this was not something that could be worked through with logic, not with a six-year-old, so I let it slide for now. Maybe someday in the future he'll decide to play with his food—a thing that sounds funny for a mom to encourage, but there you have it.

The recipes for our Chicken Kebab and Mango Lassi projects are below. They could use a little finessing, perhaps, but they are also quite good the way they are. Although I held back on the heat I could have added (would have preferred myself, maybe) in the chicken, I was pleased with the way the garam masala went down. Kids, including my own, are notorious for balking at anything spicy. However, Q ate at least half our batch of chicken—wolfed it down, so clearly it was a success. The meat was moist and juicy, though I may have broiled it on the long side. It would be better on a charcoal grill, but such is life in a small Manhattan apartment! The skewers were completely charred under the broiler, though. The lassi went down smoothly, and we each had two servings apiece.

Chicken Kebab

(made 6 skewers)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plain, whole-milk yogurt, preferably Greek-style

1 TBS fresh lime juice

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 large garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

[adult variation: consider adding some heat with 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper]

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

olive oil for greasing broiler pan or grill

Also needed: wooden skewers soaked in warm water for 30 minutes

Directions:

In a glass bowl, whisk together all ingredients, minus the chicken. Place chicken cubes in the mixture, and stir to coat evenly. Cover the bowl with a fitted lid or plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator to marinate for 30-60 minutes.

Preheat oven to broil.

[Alternately, fire up a grill with moderately high heat.]

Place four chicken pieces on each skewer, leaving some room between each piece. On an oiled rack or tray, broil chicken 6-7 mins on one side, then turn and broil for another 6-7 minutes, until brown and cooked through. [I've adjusted the cooking time very slightly compared to what we did, making it just a bit less. We had actually done 5 minutes on one side, 10 on the other, and that was too lopsided; I was going for that nice char-grilled look . . . ]

Mango Lassi

(6 servings)

Ingredients:

2 cups plain nonfat yogurt

1 cup whole milk

1 can (30 oz) sliced Alphonso mangoes, drained; but I'd use puree the next time, and less

12 ice cubes

Directions:

Blend all ingredients in a blender. Serve chilled. May last in refrigerator, covered, for a day or two, but you will need to re-whip it.

Cheers!