Big Al’s K-Bobs
When my brother told that he was making shish kabobs for dinner, I thought to myself, “Shish kabobs? Those crazy things on sticks where the veggies and meat are never cooked evenly?”
But wait, I told myself. This is your brother, King of the Grill (his cooker is about the size of a Smart Car). He knows what he’s doing. So, I immediately wiped away all of my bad shish kabob/ex-husband memories from the 80s, and went about my business preparing the salad while my niece and nephew splashed all afternoon in the pool.
Of course his kabobs were juicy, and tasty and perfect in every way. His secret: cooking the meat on one set of skewers, and the veggies on another.
Duh. It seems so obvious, doesn’t it?
Great thing is about these, too, is they cook quickly. You just need to fire up the grill beforehand and let it get nice and hot.
Shish Kabobs
3-4 pounds beef sirloin, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup soy sauce
¼ cup red wine vinegar
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
4 cloves garlic, minced
black pepper
sea salt
1. Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Pour over meat, in a heavy, freezer Ziploc and marinate 6-8 hours or overnight.
3. Slide onto metal skewers (if you use wooden skewers, be sure to soak them in water first for one hour) and grill on each of the four sides of the meat, about one minute each, depending on the size (or you can cook just two sides for two minutes each).
It’s done when you touch it and it feels tender to the touch (medium).
Tip: This is so obvious, but if you don’t know if the meat is done, just slide one off and try it.
A side of veggie kabobs can be anything that you like, but try to put veggies that’ll all cook about the same time onto each skewer. Also best to cook the veggie kabobs first, Alan says, since they take longer than the meat to cook.
He used: cherry tomatoes, onion, portobello mushrooms, yellow squash, red and yellow bell peppers. All were cut about the same size, about two inches, so they’d cook evenly.
