Sweet and Sour Pork Skewers

Difficulty 3

These skewers are easy to make and pleasantly refreshing to eat. 

Ingredients:

• 2 ~3 boneless pork chops around ¾ inches thick (makes 6 ~10 skewers)
• Package of cherry tomatoes
• Sweet and Sour sauce
• 6 inch bamboo skewers
• Coarse sea salt

Method:

• Pre-soak skewers
• Trim pork chops as desired
• Cut pork chops into ¾ inch wide strips
• Cut each strip into ¾ inch long pieces
• Wash tomatoes thoroughly
• Skewer 2 ~ 3 small odd size pieces of pork chop
• Skewer one tomato through the stem end.  If the tomato is very oblong shaped, skewer through the short side
• Skewer another piece of pork chop then another tomato and so on until the skewer is full
• Grill until pork chop is a nice golden brown and then flip over until other side is well seared
• Place skewer on serving plate when finished grilling and pour sweet and sour sauce over top of skewers

Key Points:

• Tomatoes may burn before pork is done, so flip skewers a few times if necessary
• Be sure to test one of the skewers to make sure the pork is done – you should be able to know what color they are when fully cooked after a few trials

Yakitori

What is Yakitori?  And why is it great?

Yakitori may sound a little exotic the first few times you hear it, but after eating it a couple of times you’ll realize it is just good old bbq chicken on skewers.  Yakitori, literally barbecued chicken on skewers, is great in several different ways.

• 1. Super easy to eat
  Having yakitori means you don’t have to get your fingers all dirty and you don’t need to worry about a knife and fork.  With skewers at your outdoor BBQ, you don’t have to keep track of your eating utensils or find a hard surface to set your paper plate on to cut your chicken.  You can easily eat it standing or sitting.

 

• 2. Grilling is way easy
  Yakitori allows you to focus on smaller chunks of meat at a time and chunks of meat that are consistently sized so they will cook more evenly.  You can place skewers on the grill, flip them and when they are done cooking you can simply hand them over to your friends without ever having to use tongs or a fork.  You will need your tongs for the coals, so don’t be too quick to throw them out. 

 

• 3. Chicken tastes way better
  Yakitori makes chicken, taste better because the meat is cut into consistent bite size pieces.  This means that each and every bite will capture all the textures and flavors.  Each bite can be seared the way you like.  Each bite will be lightly salted or dipped in just the right amount of teriyaki sauce.  The inside of the chicken will all be juicy and tender.  Barbecuing whole chicken breasts or thighs, for example often leaves the outside slightly over cooked in order to make sure the center is properly cooked.  The outside is also where all the seasons are.  You usually end up with very different tasting bites depending on whether you eat from the outside or the inside of the chicken breast or chicken thigh.  Yakitori makes every bite taste more consistent and more the way you want them.

 

• 4.  Yakitori is extremely popular in Japan.  You can find a yakitori pub around practically every corner in major cities such as Tokyo or Osaka.  You may even find that it is more common than sushi.  In grocery stores you can find pre-cooked yakitori that you can bring home and simply warm up for your party.

 

• 5.  Yakitori is fun to grill, a little challenging to prepare, very inexpensive, and a wonderfully delicious and healthy way to barbecue!

 

Questions about yakitori and skewering are very welcome!

Yakitori Order from Furin

Skewer Grill Conversion

Difficulty 3

Make your charcoal grill bamboo skewer friendly for less than 10 bucks.  It’s an easy and affordable way to grill all kinds of skewered foods like yakitori and satay.

Ingredients:

• 6 patio bricks (2x4x6 inches), any color you like – about 50 cents each
• 2 iron rods of iron rebar (1/2inch diameter x 18 inch long) – about 2 dollars each
• 1 wire brush – about 5 dollars
• 1 charcoal grill – hopefully you already have one

Method:

• Place two bricks on the very bottom charcoal rack – this will serve to hold in heat as well as catch burning coals that fall through the grate
• Place the top grill rack back on so that it is covering the two bricks bellow – hopefully you don’t mind placing burning coals on the food grill rack
• Arrange the remaining bricks in a box shape over the two bricks on the bottom rack
  Place hot coals in the brick box on top of the food grill rack
• Use wire brush to thoroughly remove all the rust and debris from the rebar rods
• Place rebar rods across brick box and thoroughly heat for at least 10 minutes before grilling skewers

Key Points:

• You can easily add more bricks to make more skewer grilling space – just make sure you have enough space inside your grill
• When you are skewering the food, try to keep a little extra space open at the top of the skewer because the skewers need to rest on the round shape of rebar rod – if the food is skewered right to the very tip of the skewer the skewers will have a higher chance of slipping off the rebar and into the coals
• Make the brick box as close to the edge of the grill as possible to prevent heat from coming out the side you are grilling from – this will protect your fingers from getting burnt
• Charcoal can be lit directly in the brick box, or in a charcoal chimney

Shrimp Skewers

Difficulty 1

Ingredients:

• A few cups of peeled shrimp (makes 4~5 skewers)
• Fresh lemon or lime
• Coarse sea salt
• 6 inch bamboo skewers

Method:

• make sure shrimp are thoroughly thawed
• skewer shrimp through tail side then head side
• salt as desired
• add lemon or lime juice as desired while grilling
• grill until shrimp turn slight brown at edges

Key Points:

• try to make sure shrimps are as balanced as possible on the skewers

Chicken Gizzard Skewers

Difficulty 4

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound of fresh chicken gizzards
• coarse sea salt
• 6 inch bamboo skewers

Method:

• soak skewers in water for about 10 minutes
• wash gizzards thoroughly in cool water
• cut away the thick membrane and the white shinny skin from the meat.
• skewer the gizzard meat in a consistent direction (Instructional Video -  you tube)
• salt as desired
• grill until outer edge is golden brown

Key Points:

• cutting the skin is the most difficult, so be careful not to cut yourself
• make sure to find the freshest gizzards and free-range if possible