African Style Shish Kebab Recipes

TRADITIONAL SHISH KEBABS

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• In a small plastic or glass bowl, combine the marinade ingredients (olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, cumin , grated ginger, and black pepper).
• In a resealable container (a large zip-top bag works best), place the lamb pieces with the marinade. Massage them to mix and seal bag. Refrigerate the meat in the marinade for 2 to 24 hours.
• Preheat the grill to high heat. Thread lamb, onion, and pepper pieces onto skewers-intermixing the pieces or making skewers of just meat and just vegetables (see Recipe Tip below).
• Place the kebabs on the hot grill and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes, uncovered. Starting at the 2-minute mark, turn the skewers to cook another side of the cubes. Do this every 2 minutes until all four sides of the cubes have been grilled. Cook longer if lamb chunks are larger than 1-inch.
• Once cooked to your desired doneness, remove the kebabs from the grill.
• Serve on or off of the skewers, with lemon and lime slices.

ARMENIAN SHISH KABOB

Steps:

• Stir together olive oil, lemon juice, wine, and garlic; season with salt, pepper, oregano, rosemary, and bay leaf. Toss lamb with marinade until evenly combined, then pour into a resealable plastic bag, and marinate in refrigerator at least 24 hours.
• Position oven rack to its top setting and set oven to broil.
• Remove lamb from marinade and thread onto metal skewers; reserve marinade. Thread onion wedges, green peppers, and mushrooms onto separate metal skewers. Brush vegetables with reserved marinade.
• Broil the skewers on a broiler pan, turning frequently. Cook onions for 12 minutes, lamb for 10 minutes, green pepper for 7 minutes, and the mushrooms for 3 minutes. Remove from oven, and allow to cool until cool enough to handle.
• Remove skewers from ingredients and set aside. Reassemble skewers, alternating lamb, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Place onto broiler pan and brush again with marinade. Discard remaining marinade.
• Broil skewers again to finish cooking, turning frequently until the lamb is medium-rare and the vegetables begin to blacken in spots, 5 to 7 minutes.

INDIAN STYLE SHEEKH KABAB

Steps:

• In a large bowl, mix ground lamb, onions, mint, cilantro, ginger paste, and chile paste. Season with cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne, and salt. Cover, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Mold handfuls of the lamb mixture, about 1 cup, to form sausages around skewers. Make sure the meat is spread to an even thickness. Refrigerate until you are ready to grill.
• Preheat grill for high heat.
• Brush grate liberally with oil, and arrange kabobs on grill. Cook for 10 minutes, or until well done, turning as needed to brown evenly.

AFRICAN-STYLE SHISH KEBAB

Steps:

• Combine yogurt, lemon juice, olive oil, onion, mint,.
• cilantro, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper in large bowl. Add.
• meat to marinade; refrigerate 4 to 5 hours for lamb, overnight.
• for beef.
• Remove from refrigerator 2 hours before cooking.
• Just before cooking, arrange meat on skewers alternately with.
• tomatoes, green peppers, onions and mushrooms. Place on grill.
• 3 inches above coals, which should be red hot but not flaming.
• Cook 5 minutes on each side, turning skewers to brown meat.
• evenly.
• I recommend serving with rice.

THE BEST SHISH KEBABS

Steps:

• Soak the skewers in water for at least 15 minutes and up to overnight. Pat them dry and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
• Whisk the vinegar, scallions, Dijon, garlic, sugar, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, 1/2 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper in a medium bowl or large liquid measuring cup. Whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until emulsified.
• Put the beef pieces, bell peppers, onions and zucchini in a large resealable plastic bag. Reserve 1/4 cup marinade and pour the rest into the bag and seal. Toss the bag so the meat and vegetables are well coated. Marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours and up to overnight.
• Prepare a grill for medium-high heat.
• Thread the meat and vegetables onto a skewer in the following order: beef, zucchini, red pepper, yellow pepper and onion. Repeat the threading three more times, ending with a piece of beef (there should be 5 pieces of beef and 4 pieces of each vegetable on the skewer). Repeat with the remaining skewers and ingredients.
• Sprinkle the kebabs with 1/2 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper. Grill at an angle, uncovered, until deep char marks form and the vegetables start to soften, 5 to 6 minutes. Flip the skewers and continue cooking until the beef has reached an internal temperature of 125 degrees F when measured with an instant-read thermometer, about 5 minutes.
• Remove from the grill and brush the kebabs with the reserved 1/4 cup marinade. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

SHISH KEBAB

Steps:

• Skewer the lamb cubes on the skewers. Stir together the yogurt, olive oil and onion juice in a glass or ceramic pan or bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add the lamb skewers, coat with the marinade and refrigerate, covered, for 4 hours. Prepare a charcoal fire and let it die down a bit or preheat a gas grill for 15 minutes on low. Set the skewers on a skewer holder over the fire and grill until golden brown and succulent, turning often, about 20 minutes. Or, lacking a skewer holder, place them on the grill and grill to perfection. Serve with or on a piece grill-warmed pita bread and the cacik on the side.
• Toss grated cucumber with a light sprinkling of salt. Leave for 30 minutes. Drain the cucumber, squeezing out all the liquid. Pound the garlic in a mortar with 1 teaspoon salt until completely mashed. Stir the garlic into the yogurt and beat with a fork until smooth. Stir in the cucumber, the dill, mint and olive oil and stir until the consistency of a thick soup. Refrigerate for an hour and serve cold.
• Recipe courtesy Clifford Wright