What are the best ingredients for a grilled shish-k-bob? Have a great
chunk of sirlion from Whole Foods and hope not to ruin it. I have made
them a time or two. The tomato fell into the grill some vegetables
were way over cooked and the beef was either over cooked or under cooked.
What side dishes are appropriate? Thanks for any tips you may have.

"jay" > wrote in message
news
> What are the best ingredients for a grilled shish-k-bob? Have a great
> chunk of sirlion from Whole Foods and hope not to ruin it. I have made
> them a time or two. The tomato fell into the grill some vegetables
> were way over cooked and the beef was either over cooked or under cooked.
> What side dishes are appropriate? Thanks for any tips you may have.

The most important thing is to get away from having a little bit of
everything on each skewer. Looks nice but as you have discovered it's
impossible to cook everything properly. Some combos work - for example I
find that meat cubes cook to medium rare in the same time it takes bell
pepper chunks to cook, but you need to experiment. For sides, depends on the
flavor theme of the kebobs. Traditional middle eastern I'd go with rice and
perhaps a chick pea salad.


--
Peter Aitken
Visit my recipe and kitchen myths page at www.pgacon.com/cooking.htm

jay wrote:

> What are the best ingredients for a grilled shish-k-bob? Have a great
> chunk of sirlion from Whole Foods and hope not to ruin it. I have made
> them a time or two.

You can make a great marinade with olive oil, lemon juice, pepper (easy of
the salt if using it on beef, but more for chicken and even more for pork),
crushed garlic, some red wine, and oregano. If you want a real treat, use
lamb, the real met for shish kebab.

> The tomato fell into the grill some vegetableswere way over cooked and the
> beef was either over cooked or under cooked. What side dishes are
> appropriate? Thanks for any tips you may have.

Yep. Tomatoes often do that when skewered. Sometimes you have better luck
with cherry tomato. I use pieces of spanish onion, red or green peppers and
mushroom. You may want to parboil the peppers and onion.

They go nicely with rice or roasted potatoes. Make a real Greek Salad, chunks
of tomato, cucumber, onion, feta cheese, black olives and sprinkle with fresh
lemon juice, olive oil and oregano and/or marjoram.

Dave Smith wrote:

> jay wrote:
>
> > What are the best ingredients for a grilled shish-k-bob? Have a great
> > chunk of sirlion from Whole Foods and hope not to ruin it. I have made
> > them a time or two.
>
> You can make a great marinade with olive oil, lemon juice, pepper (easy of
> the salt if using it on beef, but more for chicken and even more for pork),
> crushed garlic, some red wine, and oregano. If you want a real treat, use
> lamb, the real met for shish kebab.
>
> > The tomato fell into the grill some vegetableswere way over cooked and the
> > beef was either over cooked or under cooked. What side dishes are
> > appropriate? Thanks for any tips you may have.
>
> Yep. Tomatoes often do that when skewered. Sometimes you have better luck
> with cherry tomato. I use pieces of spanish onion, red or green peppers and
> mushroom. You may want to parboil the peppers and onion.
>
> They go nicely with rice or roasted potatoes. Make a real Greek Salad, chunks
> of tomato, cucumber, onion, feta cheese, black olives and sprinkle with fresh
> lemon juice, olive oil and oregano and/or marjoram.

I make some that way, too. But try skewering just meat, or meat and onion, or cut
long strips. In any case all the chunks should be roughly the same size. Keep the
veggies for the salad. I found I like to skewer rather loosely so the meat gets
nice and brown/cris;y all the way around. If jammed together, the junctions are
kinda soggy.
Edrena

On Tue, 07 Feb 2006 14:08:44 +0000, jay wrote:

> What are the best ingredients for a grilled shish-k-bob? Have a great
> chunk of sirlion from Whole Foods and hope not to ruin it. I have made
> them a time or two. The tomato fell into the grill some vegetables
> were way over cooked and the beef was either over cooked or under cooked.
> What side dishes are appropriate? Thanks for any tips you may have.

Thanks for the suggestions. All great! I got the Greek salad going and
separate skewers for things that seem to need similar cooking
times..skewered loosely. Thanks again.