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Summer grilling: Kebobs, as tasty today as they were millennia ago

Cooking on a stick is a good way to let your creativity soar
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The original grilled meat, kebabs are the modern version of the earliest evidence of humans cooking over a fire. There likely is a museum somewhere to our million-year history of meat on a stick. Photo: Hugh Kruzel

By Hugh Kruzel

Essentially “cooked things on a stick,” kabobs or kebabs can be everything for everyone. Metal, wooden, bamboo — it doesn’t matter what you choose as the carrier. Truly, you can select any foodstuff from traditional to unconventional. Be inventive.

The original grilled meat, kebabs are the modern version of the earliest evidence of humans cooking over a fire. There likely is a museum somewhere to our million-year history of meat on a stick.

It could be located in the Balkans, the Caucasus, or maybe Anatolian Turkey — where we figured out how to BBQ. Naturally, wild game on the wing, hoof or fin predate even goat, lamb, or domesticated species as dinner. 

Evidence of this style of cooking is found in the mists of time, but you can enjoy it today as street food in Southeast Asia, as Souvlaki in Greece, and in your own backyard. 

It is international fare and perhaps one of the simplest to do, as well as potentially the most savoury style you can bring to your BBQ. 

Anand Prakash in his book, “The World of Kebabs,” offers over 100 worldwide recipes. He is essentially a kebab aficionado. Most instructions showcase regional choices and certainly in many examples the spicing suggests a Mid-Eastern or North-African heritage. 

Just to twist the tale, Prakash suggests Hawaiian seafood kebabs, or just pork and pineapple. 

Always fast and easy, kebabs could include cherry tomatoes and scallops, or apricots and lamb, for nice contrasts of colour, texture and flavours. Kebabs can be appetizers, the main course or even dessert.

You can even involve children in building kebabs, as they can easily assemble their own, and in whatever desired combination they wish. They build it, they eat it. Beef and onion and green pepper? Boring! Think bigger, broader, bolder and fun.

A nice starter of beef featuring a Satay peanut sauce can be made even better with garden fresh cilantro and coconut milk. As a main, try small cubes or thin strips of poultry (even duck) done in soy and honey or chocolate balsamic. Beef marinated overnight in dark rum, curry, chilies, and a splash of red wine vinegar will help tenderize less expensive cuts of meat. 

Tender is the name of the game. Of course, lamb featuring Moroccan seasoning is beautiful on a bed of flavourful saffron rice infused with nutmeg. 

A West Coast-influenced kebab of halibut and salmon mixes up geography with a dip of tzatziki.  Fresh ground black Malabar pepper can give every serving a kick.

How about this seasonal inspiration on the theme: Thanksgiving turkey kebabs with cranberry sauce and brussel sprouts. 

Meat and various vegetables can reflect season changes, and perhaps combo skewers are a healthy alternative to all meat of the traditional summer BBQ. Consider seafood and even fruit, and squeeze lemon and lime juice to delivers that zing to “Shrimp on the Barbie.” Go Cajun shrimp with mango or a line of scallops, mussels, oysters, with swordfish. Sesame crusted kebabs of tuna are yet another idea.

Yes, even firm tofu or eggplant can be done this way. Grill marks scored across the surfaces are achieved easily when you brush the cubes with a light coating of flavoured olive oil.

If you have not yet added kebabs to your BBQ repertoire, now it the time to do it.

Enjoy and don’t forget to soak your bamboo skewers an hour before you use them.


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