KaBob's Your Uncle

KaBob's Your Uncle

OK so there are a few simple facts that ring true for most people things like,'we should eat more fruits and vegetables', and 'food on a stick is good'. The problem is that usually vegetables are a distant second or third choice after more alluring foods like meat and chocolate and rarely come in some sort of undeniably delicious packaging,...like being on a stick!

This is where I come in stating that I, yes I, have found that answer and remedy to all your problems and that answer is the mighty Kabob.

Now I’m sure you all know what a kabob is and in fact have probably seen them being eaten from time to time by friends and possibly loved ones but for some reason when people are thinking of what they should prepare for the BBQ they often seem to get lost in the shuffle of burger, hot dogs and steaks. Why is this well it possibly, nigh in fact probably, has to do with many reasons not the least of which is the prep time required and although I do truly extol the virtues of short prep time with little to clean up sometime a slightly greater effort is well worth it.

When looking at how to make a good kabob in general you want to identify foods that will not only cook well on a kabob but go well with the foods you put on the kabob. Usually when making kabobs the base which we will base the rest of our decisions around will be our meat and while just about any variety of meat (lamb, beef, pork, chicken, shrimp,etc...) can be used one should look for a more tender and less fatty cut generally when picking meat for kabobs like tenderloin or poultry breast meat. Then there is choosing the vegetables which should be both veggies that will cook reasonably quickly but not too quick and will also stay on the stick. Typically good vegetable choices include mushrooms, sweet peppers, onion, pineapple (not a vegetable I know but delicious grilled especially with pork or shrimp) while some less wise choices would be things like carrots and potatoes (take too long to cook) or broccoli and cauliflower which have a hard time staying on the kabob skewer.

Once you have chosen your meats/vegetables you may decide to marinate some or all of them depending but its really as simple as choosing your marinades if any, cutting the food into more or less bite sized chunks, putting the food on the kabob skewers and grilling them until cooked.

Bleeding Teddy's Kick-ass Kabobs

First off this recipe makes a lot of food so make sure you have a decent amount of people around to eat it.

Prep time- 20 minutes for the marinade, 20 minutes for cooking.

Dishes dirtied- 1 chef's knife, 1 cutting board, 2 marinating containers (Tupperware style containers), 1 food processor, 1 pair of BBQ tongs.

Other items required- Kabob Skewers

Ingredients

1 Lb. Jumbo Shrimp Uncooked and Thawed

1 Lb. Pork Tenderloin diced into 1” chunks

1 good sized Sweet Green Pepper

1 good sized Sweet Red Pepper

2 medium sized Sweet Onions

12-14 good sized Button Mushrooms

1 Jalapeno Pepper

3 Serrano Peppers

4-5 Cloves of Garlic

¼ cup Lemon Juice

¼ cup Sesame Seed Oil

¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar

¼ cup Olive Oil

Dash of Oregano

Salt and Pepper to taste

Take your Jalapeno and Serrano Peppers, you Garlic, Lemon Juice, Sesame Oil, Oregano, about half your Balsamic Vinegar, Salt and Pepper and put it all into your food processor (if you don’t have a food processor a blender will work as well), blend until fairly smooth. Now take your Shrimp and Pork put it into one of your Tupperware containers pour the marinade over everything put the lid on and give a slight shake.

Next Take your Mushrooms and slice them all in half and put them in your other Tupperware container pour your olive oil and the rest of your Balsamic Vinegar over them put the lid on and give them a bit of a shake. From here we wait...

Let the Meat and Mushrooms marinate for a few hours minimum but overnight is better.

Once the meat and mushrooms are marinated take your Onions Green and Red Peppers and cut them into more or less bite sized chunks (about 1” or so) and skewer everything together on the Kabob Skewers. One little note about this is make sure to alternate the different ingredients on the skewers well, I generally go 1 piece veg, 1 meat, 2 veg, 1 meat, 1 veg, 1 meat, 2 veg, etc...

From here finishing is as simple as cooking over a medium heat grill until they are done (usually about 10-15 minutes) turning them fairly often so no sides get overdone.

I recommend serving with a bed of rice or grilled potatoes and a salad.