Kabob'n Grill-less

Recipe: Mini Beef & Colorado Potato Kabobs

Source: Fun Summer Food, June/July 2003

Time: 1 hour (does not include marination time)

Ease: 4

Taste: 7

Leftover Value: 7

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer, but for ease's sake, forget about the kabobs! 

These past two weeks seem to be the weeks of marination.  I did not mean for them to be like this, but somehow it happened that way.  

I was so excited to try this recipe out because I had bought beef chuck to make stew with and then the cold season, well, never happened and I wanted to use my beef chuck in a seasonally appropriate way.

I have to warn you, just the pictures of these skewers have me salivating so much, I might have to break down and heat up some leftovers for myself.  And that never happens!

The great thing about this recipe is that the marinade for the beef is super simple and super easy to create on your own.  In essence, it is a balsamic vinegar marinade.  This mixture of balsamic vinegar, oil, and fresh herbs enhances the meat's already scrumptious flavor.  The recipes said to let the meat and veggies marinate several hours or overnight.  For starters, I'm very picky, so I marinated them separately.  Second, I did not want to marinate overnight.  I made the marinade in the morning and let it sit in the fridge for about eight hours.

A little secret, I did not use Colorado potatoes like the recipe said to.

Egads, I know!

However, I did bake my potatoes a little too long.  They ended up super soft when I went to thread them on the skewers.  So, I recommend baking your potatoes only about 30 minutes and then chopping them up to put onto the skewers.

I thought I had a pretty good system for loading the skewers, but it was also a pretty messy system too.

You be the judge.

Once the skewers were all set, and since my grill isn't up and running (my grill which I don't know how to use anyway) I broiled them for about ten minutes.

They were perfect.

The kabob thing and the mess it left is the reason that next time I would marinate the meat and then just fry the meat and veggies together in a skillet.  It'll turn out almost the same...just, without the kabob part.

They do look pretty though.