Mmm Barbeque

My dad hates going out to restaurants. He just doesn't understand why someone would WANT to spend two hours in a restaurant and hates that the food doesn't come out faster. He also just prefers home-cooked (ideally Korean) meals and doesn't see why we would ever eat out when the food is better, and cheaper at home. Of course my mom is the complete opposite and really enjoys going out to eat so we do usually end up at restaurants for special occasions, but on Father's day of course dad gets what he wants.

This year we had his favourite shish kebabs as part of a barbeque feast. (I'm not exaggerating here. We had WAY too much food for four people) These kebabs are sweet, tangy and the roasted vegetables are a perfect compliment to the beef. I also tried out a new recipe for grilled shrimp from Bon Appetit that was really yummy as well. Easy and delicious, and very little waiting involved!

Beef Shish Kebabs

1-2lbs beef tenderloin or striploin
2 white onions, cut into eighths (cut in half and quarter each half)
a few stalks of green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces
a couple of red, yellow or orange peppers cut into 1-inch pieces
1 zucchini, cut into small chunks
cherry tomatoes
kebab skewers (you might want to soak these beforehand - I never have but this always seems to be the instruction in kebab recipes so I'm not sure...)

Marinade
*please keep in mind that these measurements are estimates - I always just adjust this to taste as I go, and my dad prefers these on the sweet side so you may want to cut down the honey or brown sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup white wine vinegar
1/8 cup honey
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

1. Place beef in a shallow-ish tupperware container. Ideally you want the beef in one layer so that it can soak up the marinade, but you can use a smaller, deeper one and just rotate the meat once in awhile.
2. Whisk together marinade ingredients and adjust to taste. Pour over beef and refrigerate for a few hours (you can do this overnight if you want as well).
3. Cut up beef into 1-inch cubes (you could also do this pre-marinade if you'd like)
4. Skewer beef and vegetables onto kebab skewers, alternating between onions, beef, peppers, zucchini. Leave about an inch open at the top for the cherry tomatoes (you'll add these later)
5. Grill for about 5-10 minutes, then flip and add a cherry tomato to the end of each skewer
6. Grill for an additional 5-10 minutes, to preferred doneness (I would generally cook these for about 5 minutes a side but my dad likes his meat well done)


Grilled Shrimp with Molasses-Guava Glaze (adapted from Bon Appetit)
*I actually did adjust the glaze quite a bit. I only had dark molasses on hand, so I had to adjust the jam:molasses ratio to make it work

4 tbsp cooking molasses
5 tbsp guava or apricot jam (I used guava-peach-mango jam because we already had some)
1 1/2 tbsp butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
finely grated peel of 2 limes
juice of 1 lime
32 uncooked shrimp, peeled, deveined
salt and pepper
Kebab skewers (same note about soaking as above)

1. Combine molasses, jam and butter in microwave-safe container. Microwave in 30 second increments until butter is melted and ingredients are well combined. Add lime peel and lime juice. (you can do this in advance in refrigerate until ready to use)
2. Season shrimp with salt and pepper and thread 4 shrimp on each skewer.
3. Brush shrimp skewers with glaze on both sides.
4. Barbeque on medium-high heat for about 2 minutes per side. (The recipe says to continue glazing and drizzle with some reserved glaze at the end but I found this unecessary so skipped these steps)