Shish-kabob help
Ok, I just got a grill for the first time ever last week. Made some portabellas and bocas and they turned out well. I'd like to make vegetable shish-kabob and have a couple of questions, and please don't laugh (at least not too hard).
My skewers are flat, stainless steel with wooden handles. do the handles stay on the outside, with the grill lid closed? or do they go inside the grill too? I guess I need to soak the handles in water for a bit if they go inside-and maybe outside too.
I've also read some conflicting information about marinades-some sites say sugary sauces must only be applied after the food has been on the grill a bit, and other sites recommend marinading for up to a full day-and some of these sauces have sugar or are sweet. Not sure how to deal with that. What about BBQ sauce?
Thanks, any assistance is much appreciated. it's a gas grill by the way, if it matters and it didn't come with any ceramic briquets or anything like that.
Don't soak your skewers, that only goes for the completely wooden kind that look like extra large toothpicks. THe kind you describe, the handles better not go the actual grill surface, but out to the side.
It is fruit you are doing? I personally would not marinate that because they might fall apart before you got them done. You can brush with a sauce, but sugar will burn. Some people marinate, some people brush with sauces as they grill and others believe you don't sauce until they are done and off the grill! I think some of this is personal preference.
If you don't mind aluminum foil, you can get these funny little sheets of it with a texture and with slits in it specifically for grilling and these work well for sticky stuff and for stuff that would fall through the grill slats. I used to have a skewer frame and skewer set for my gas grill and that was nice too.
and since gas is a constant heat, you might not want to turn it up very high if you do fruit.
Don't soak your skewers, that only goes for the completely wooden kind that look like extra large toothpicks. THe kind you describe, the handles better not go the actual grill surface, but out to the side.
Yeah, be careful! Leave the handles out. The handles may have some kind of a shelac on them that might burn (if you put them onto the grill) and be toxic. :o
Mmmmmmm veggie kabobs. Love them!
Anyways, about marinades. What I do, usually, is I toss the veggies in olive oil and spices until well coated. Then I skewer them. Sometimes I will marinate the veggeis in Italian dressing over night. As far as BBQ sauce goes, Ladydragon is right. It burns too easy. I usually just brush BBQ sauce on the veggies as they cook. But I haven't used BBQ sauce in a while.
thanks for all the help! i am looking at kabobbing vegetables, with maybe some pineapple included. I was also thinking of freezing some tofu and grilling that with bbq sauce. I did some fruit the other night-canteloupe, granny smith apples, and a pear-on aluminum foil with no marinade of any kind. Tasted good, but not sure I cooked them long enough. Anyhow, thanks again for your help!
a REALLY yummy, but simple, marinate for tofu and veggies is given here: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=13180.0. (It's another of Dragonfly's delish recipes!!)
K^2