I don’t know if it’s “normal” to marinate beef for kebabs, but the reason why I do it is because I reserve premium beef cuts for cooking as steaks or roasting to medium rare for special occasions. So I use better value beef cuts for kebabs and as a consequence, I’ve always marinated them to tenderise, add juiciness and a hint of flavour. I don’t mean to talk down Beef Kabobs, because they are fabulously moorish, and if your budget stretches to using $50/kg beef fillet to make kebabs for a backyard barbie, I want your life!😂
THE BEEF KABOB MARINADE
The marinade I use for these Beef Kabobs is my everyday Steak Marinade. It’s savoury with a hint of sweet, and made with pantry essentials – soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, pepper and oil. And yes, you read that right – soy sauce is in the marinade. No, it doesn’t make it taste Asian-y in the slightest! It’s basically the brine for the marinade, making it ultra juicy.
THE ART OF KABOB THREADING
Just kidding – it’s not an art at all! There’s no science behind the order in which I thread the beef and vegetables onto the skewers. I always start it with every intention of making them look the same, but I lose focus very quickly. So as you can see below, my skewers are a hodgepodge of random order. Having said that though, I do follow these Kabob-Threading-Rules:
- Don’t smush everything together tightly. Thread pretty loosely so some heat can get in between – this helps cook the vegetables more evenly (rather than charred edges and crunchy raw in the middle);
- Cut your veggies so they are the same size as the meat to encourage even cooking (sometimes I even trim the veggies after threading); and
- Two pieces of veggies between each piece of beef – it just makes the beef go further so you get 8 big kabobs from 750g/1.5lb of beef, and a nice hit of veggies per serving. Just to be clear, I totally made these rules up myself. In case it wasn’t obvious…😂
Hands down, the best way to cook Beef Kabobs is on the barbie. But of course, when I went to do just that for the video, I found that I was out of gas. So I had to try to cook them on the stove – but the skewers are too long for my skillets so I could only fit in 2 at a time on the diagonal. They looked ridiculous.🙄 But they were still just as tasty!! – Nagi x PS I don’t know for certain if it’s kabobs or kebabs. I’ve seen skewered meats onTurkish/Lebanese restaurants as kebobs and when I think of kebabs, I think of Doner Kebabs. So I’ve gone with Kabob!
Try these on the side for a summer grill out
Avocado Corn Salad Pasta Salad with Sun Dried Tomatoes Israeli Couscous Salad Easy Soft Flatbread Juicy Greek Salad Macaroni Salad
And for something different, try a starter of Gozleme Turkish Stuffed Flatbreads – brilliant on the BBQ!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
As noted above, I had to cook these in a skillet because I ran out of BBQ gas. Because the skewers are so long, I could only fit 2 in at a time – they look ridiculous!!
LIFE OF DOZER
Headed down south of Sydney to a country cabin on the weekend. Dozer spent the entire time gazing (like below) and grazing (on wallaby poo and all other manner of animal droppings littered all over the property 😝). He managed to wiggle out of his collar once* and took off after something he heard rustling in the bushes. His pursuit led him to a tight shrub in which he got stuck, so I managed to catch up to him and had to literally haul him out by grabbing his tail, then his butt fur, then eventually grabbing his collar. He got in so much trouble!!!
- For those playing catch up: Dozer busted his knee a couple of months ago and had to undergo surgery. We’re 8 weeks into a 12 – 16 week post op recovery period, and he thinks he is 100% healed.
