So, I’m having a little BBQ/grill shindig on Saturday and am searching for some non beef options that are exceptionally delicious. Usually, I make some high quality burgers or this, the world’s greatest tri tip recipe, but a friend who is Hindu will be in attendance and, I, being an accommodating host, would like to have something delicious that he’ll want to eat (and the rest of us, too!).
I figure I’ll still make a few burgers for fun (I suppose I could do some turkey burgers, but where’s the fun in that?), but I’m looking for some new and exciting recipes. Pork? Chicken? Whatever. Lay it on me. Give me your best, Dopers!
So should I not bring the cheese filled cow that I’ll deepfry? I mean, I have the cow already and I don’t think being injected with cheese is good for her. She’s getting a bit sickly looking.
Vegetarian kabobs along with the burgers. Depending on how observant your friend is, most every meat except goat is out. So marinate good solid mushrooms, slices of cobbed corn, zucchini, eggplant and the like, skewer and grill. Or grill and stuff portobellos.
How’s about swapping out the tri-tip for a pork shoulder or pork roast? And see if you can find a butcher that cuts his own bacon - and get really really thick 1/4" slices to grill, with a heavy brown sugar/whiskey/black pepper glaze?
No, the rest of us would thoroughly enjoy that; definitely bring it. Thank you.
I know for a fact he only doesn’t eat beef- he’ll eat everything else. He made us Indian food the other night where one dish had chicken, another had pork. And he had seafood for lunch that day :D. Still, the kabobs might just be yummy regardless. What do I marinate them in?
Would the recipe work just as well with pork? I’d be afraid it would dry out. Do you adjust marinating time with pork vs beef? For instance, for that beef recipe, you can marinate it for up to three days.
Tyler Florence has an amazing BBQ chicken recipe. I’ve made it several times when having folks over for a BBQ and it’s always a big hit.Linky to recipe here.
Figure-it-out-yourself kabobs. Since I’m mean and have had it up to here with my relatives all a sudden turning veggie, or non-pork eating, or strange onion allergies, yet love having all of them over for grilling, I thought them up myself.
I get a bag of stew beef, a hunk of either loin or shoulder, and boneless chicken and cut them all into big chunks, put them in seperate zip-lock bags. All the bags get salt and pepper. Sometimes I change it up but the standard is: Worcestershire, olive oil, thyme and cumin in the beef, Teryaki sauce and a dash of sesame oil for the pork and olive oil, lemon juice. basil and rosemary for the chicken.
When it’s time for grilling, I chunk up any veggie/fruit I have-- onions, peppers, carrots, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers, pineapples, apples, mango-- whatever. All of this goes into separate bowls along with a pan of soaking kabob sticks and I tell them nit-picky little bastards, “You figure it out.”
O.K., I’m not that mean. There are ready made up kabobs that people can grab but they never get picked. The making of the kabobs is the highlight of the BBQ.
I was actually pleasantly surprised with the turkey burgers I made last year - my guest keeps kosher and the kosher beef at the store was tired-looking so I went with kosher ground turkey. I expected dry and bland but cooking them slow off to the side resulted in tender deliciousness. I topped them with avocado slices and corn relish and they were pleasingly decadent. Very different from “real” burgers and I would have been dismayed to bite into one if I was expecting beef, but as a whole different food item they were delish. In retrospect perhaps the ‘kosher’ thing is key, as the bird is brined before they grind it? And of course a nice cheese can really make the difference for those of us who don;t keep kosher…
Holdovers from my vegetarian days, the classic portobello caps, also with avocado and/or cheese. Nice thick planks of Eggplant can go on a bun pretty well, too. The trick with those is to start them very hot then move them off to the side once they’ve charred a bit, then let them cook til silky inside. Topping is key - maybe a pot of some kind of fun spicy sauce that can be drizzled over?
A good, basic, use on anything spicy marinade we use a lot is:
3 cloves minced garlic
2 tsps smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
red pepper flake to taste
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
Put the above in a food processor, then drizzle in 1/2 cup olive oil until well blended.
It works well on pork as well as beef, so you can skewer pork chunks to go with the vegetable kebabs. Cook them seperately, because the cooking times are too different.