Skewers: some tips and six Gourmet recipes
The skewers should be reported in the great dictionary of the barbecue under the name “missed opportunities”. I don’t know any another typical dish of our historical grilling, the “Italian” one so to speak, who has such great potential but the skewers were always relegated to a secondary role, following boring cliché of presentation and taste. They are combinations of small portions of various foods, think about how many thousands of possibilities can generate! The Thai Satay, The greek Souvlaki, the Japanese Yakitori: it is a concept spread around the world, where in each country has been able to assume a different expression of flavor. Yet we are still anchored to the pig-chicken-sausage-pepper-bacon, now genetic heritage of butcher counters of any supermarket. It is a pity.
So I decided to contribute to the revival of the skewers sharing with you six recipes for a gourmet key and will make you re-evaluate this wonderful dish, in order to then urge you to do the same and create your own unique taste combinations. But not before I have given you four tips that can make a real difference in making a perfect skewer:
Homogeneity of cooking
One of the most important aspects of success of a skewer is the degree of cooking, which must be uniform in all its parts. In order for this to be true, however, it is necessary that its ingredients have the same cooking characteristics. What sense does it make beef and chicken in the same skewer? If cooked perfectly the first, the second will be raw. If the latter is cooked, the first will be a shoe sole.
Balance Fat/lean
If your skewers contain one or more ingredients very lean, you could easily go into the risk of excessively drying out during cooking. Exactly how do you do when you lard a lean cut when cooking into the oven, interspersed with lean parts, one fat part. It will keep the mixtures and will give great flavor to all.
up leveled cooking
How do you imagine the perfect skewers? probably with a perfect and evenly golden bark, visible in every corner, right? If you think about, it’s hard to accomplish this by placing the skewer on the grill, because the point of contact will cook more, by cauterization. This practice also carries risks in going with skewers including very delicate flesh ingredients, such as fish, which ends almost inevitably to fall apart during cooking. The best way to cook the skewers is in my opinion to suspended them from the grid. Practice this ride a lot in the recent past by the producers who have always focused more and more in recent years on the suspension elements. In practice we talk about supports resting on the grid, on which they rest the skewers by themselves, remaining suspended from the latter. If you do not have one you can safely replace it with an inverted foil tray to which you removed the bottom with a cutter.
Oil
Always brush with a little oil the sides of the skewer: will convey the warmth and will give him a beautiful color. Just a few is needed anyway. The right amount is one in which if you raise the skewer, this does not drip.
Well, it finally came the time for my recipes of the gourmet skewers. As you can see, in many of these you will find a reference to marinades, for me a must on skewers, taken from a post on Marinades we saw together some weeks ago. You remember?
Pork, Apple and Calvados
Delicious recipe, believe me. Maybe just not suitable for children. It consists in cutting the apples Granny Smith (the green ones to understand) into cubes or slices leaving the skin and put them in an ice bag for 20 minutes with half a glass of Calvados, the famous distilled from apples. The skewer is then composed of alternating Pig Loin, thick cut bacon, a square of a layer of red onion and the “drunken” apples.
Sword Fish, Zucchini and Cherry Tomatoes
Elegant and refined. Simply cut the Sword Fish into thick slices and then cut into cubes. Place them then to marinate for an hour in a freezing bag in the Simple Seafood marinade. Cut the zucchini into sections by about 5 cm and then each of these in the transverse direction with a thickness of about 1/2 cm. Assemble then the skewer with swordfish, zucchini and a cherry tomato.
Mushroom, Lamb and Picanha
Skewers that seems to belong to Cave Mans but which turns out to be rather surprisingly refined, more than they might suggest. Take some Lamb ribs bones out and then cut the meat into cubes. Then take a picanha, of course, with its layer of fat and cut into cubes too. Then put both to marinate in a freezing bag in the Fab Four marinade. Take off the seeds from a pepper and then cut into squares. Finally Assemble the skewers alternating the lamb, the pepper, the mushrooms and the picanha.
Duck Breast, Prunes and Bacon
Well this is a pairing of flavors that does not need an introduction, but on a skewer it can find an expression of truly remarkable taste. Cut the duck breast into cubes, leaving the skin, then assembled the skewers alternating the thick cut bacon and of pitted dried prunes
Shrimp, Pineapple, Cherry Tomatoes and Mint
This is also a pairing of flavors not new but I like to marinate the shrimp in Simple Seafood, already seen above and add some dried mint on the skewer before starting cooking. For the rest the composition it is simple: it is enough to cut the pineapple slices into cubes and to alternate them to cherry tomatoes.
Salmon, Zucchini and Dark Bread
The pairing between the dark bread with salmon is one of those I prefer and if you remember, we had already seen together in the recipe about Candy Salmon Cubes. Cut a half salmon into squares. I like to leave the skin on but you are free to take it off if you don’t. Then cut the zucchini in the same way that we had seen for the second recipe and a block of dark bread into thick slices and then into cubes. Finally Assemble the skewers alternating the salmon, zucchini and dark bread.
And now you also contribute to restoring dignity to the gastronomic skewers. They will thank you, but above all you will do to them, I guarantee. Have you already thought about your own recipe of gourmet skewer?
