Firecracker Kabobs

Patti and I are going to a get together with friends on July 4^th. We wanted to do something special with our Royall Wood Pellet Tailgater and we love kabobs. What we came up with was 8 different kabobs; one was a fresh fruit kabob for dessert and 6 different sauces with a little help from Grandville’s BBQ Jams.

We were looking for the biggest blast of flavor possible from a Tailgater. We already had a head start because we were using our Royall Tailgater with the house blend of wood pellets. A wood pellet mix of hickory, oak and cherry that adds a nice smoke finish to your foods.

Our Kabobs:

Scallops wrapped with bacon

Shrimp with pineapple chunks and glazed with Grandville’s Cajun Kick (ZIPPY)

Chicken with sweet peppers, red onion, pineapple cubes, lightly sautéed mushrooms and Grandville’s Pineapple BBQ jam (ZIPPY)

Pork with pineapple chunks and Grandville’s Pineapple BBQ Jam

Beef sirloin, cubed with tiny potatoes, sweet peppers, red onion and a Worcestershire marinade that was heavy with garlic and black pepper

Beef sirloin, ribbon cut, plus potatoes, sweet peppers, red onion and a Teriyaki- red pepper and garlic marinade (REAL ZIPPY)

Bacon wrapped Elephant garlic with Grandville’s Extra Spicy BBQ Jam

Cook Time: 30 minutes smoke, 30 minutes to cook

Grill: Royall Tailgater Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker

Pellets: Royall House blend: hickory, oak and cherry

Shrimp & Scallops Ready for the Smoke

Ingredients: Shrimp

½ pound extra large shrimp

Pineapple chunks

BBQ Bro’s Texas Style Rub

Bamboo skewers, soaked in water for about an hour (so they don’t burn)

Directions: Shrimp

Clean and peel the shrimp, then gently string them onto bamboo skewers placing a pineapple chunk between each shrimp. Sprinkle a dusting of your rub.

The shrimp will cook the fastest. So, it will go on last for about 10 minutes.

Ingredients: Scallops

1 pound of sea scallops

½ pound thick sliced bacon, partly cooked

Directions: Scallops

Rinse and pat dry. Wrap them with the bacon as you put them on the soaked bamboo skewers.

These too will cook the fastest, so it will go on last for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle on a dusting of your rub.

Ready For The Smoke

Ingredients: Chicken

4 large chicken breasts, cut into cubes 1½ - 2 inches

Cherry tomatoes

Sweet peppers

Red onion

Lightly sautéed mushrooms

BBQ Bro’s Texas Style Rub

Directions: Chicken

Rinse and pat dry your chicken and cut into large cubes so it does not cook too fast. Then, gently skewer the veggies. Sprinkle on a dusting of your rub.

Ingredients: Pork

1 ½ pounds pork, (we used country strips, but tenderloin would work well, too) cut into cubes 1 ½ - 2 inches

Pineapple chunks

Grandville’s Pineapple BBQ Jam

BBQ Bro’s Texas Style Rub

Directions: Pork

Rinse and pat dry your pork and cut into 1 ½ - 2” cubes. Then, gently string them onto bamboo skewers placing a pineapple chunk between each piece. Sprinkle on a dusting of your rub. These will cook the longest.

Ingredients: Sirloin Steak Strips

1 ½ pounds sirloin steak, cut into ¼ inch strips

Small potatoes, parboiled

Cherry tomatoes

Sweet peppers

Red onion

Lightly sautéed mushrooms

The Teriyaki Marinade (one of Ken’s favorites)

1 ½ pounds sirloin steak, cut into ¼ inch strips

Teriyaki Sauce, to cover meat (1 to 2 cups)

½ cup crushed red pepper flakes (this is zingy, you may want to cut back here a bit)

½ cup dried crushed garlic

½ cup dried minced onion

½ cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp. coarse ground black pepper

Directions: Sirloin Steak Strips

Place the ingredients for the marinade in a zip lock bag and mix, add meat. I like to do this overnight, but if time is short you can get by with a few hours. Then, gently string the strips and veggies onto the bamboo skewers.

Ingredients: Sirloin Steak Cubes

1 ½ pounds sirloin steak, cut into 1 ½ - 2 inch cubes

Small potatoes, parboiled

Cherry tomatoes

Sweet peppers

Red onion

Lightly sautéed mushrooms

Worcestershire Marinade (Patti’s favorite)

1 cup Worcestershire sauce

½ cup Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce

2 Tbsp. dried, crushed garlic

1 Tbsp. black pepper, coarse ground

Directions: Sirloin Steak Cubes

Place the ingredients for the marinade in a zip lock bag and mix, add meat. I like to do this overnight but if time is short you can get by with a few hours. Then gently string the cubes and veggies onto the bamboo skewers.

Ingredients: Elephant Garlic

2 bulbs of Elephant Garlic

½ pound thick sliced bacon, partly cooked

Directions: Elephant Garlic

Peel garlic and cut the root off the bottom. Parboil for 3 minutes and then rinse in cold water to stop the cooking. Wrap the garlic with the bacon and secure with the skewer. These go on with the beef.

Ingredients: Fruit Kabobs

Red apple

Green apple

Pineapple

Strawberries

Honeydew Melon, remove rind

Cantaloupe, remove rind

Directions:

Wash the fruit and cut into cut into 1 ½ - 2 inch cubes. Then, gently string onto the bamboo skewers.

The Question is: to Chill or Grill?

                                      The Answer is: Yes!

Ingredients: Blue Cheese Dip

1 cup garlic mayo (you’ll find the recipe on our site)

1 cup sour cream

6 oz. crumbled blue cheese

¼ cup wine vinegar (Patti likes to use white wine)

3 Tbsp. lime juice

2 Tbsp. garlic paste

Directions: Blue Cheese Dip

Place blue cheese in a blender with the vinegar and lime juice. Add garlic, mayo and sour cream, mix well. Then into the fridge until served at least an hour or so, better overnight.

Ingredients: Fire & Ice

1 lb. sour cream

2 scallions, fine chopped

3 jalapenos, fine chopped

1 bunch fresh mint, chopped

1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

4 Tbsp. brown sugar

4 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

2 Tbsp. garlic paste

Directions: Fire & Ice Dipping Sauce

Place everything in the blender and puree. Then, back into the fridge until you are ready to serve. Try and give it a few hours so everything can get happy. Again, overnight is best.

Ingredients: Chipotle Sauce

1 cup sour cream

1 cup Mayo

1 small can chipotle chili with adobo sauce, rough chopped

3 jalapeno peppers, rough chopped

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

2 Tbsp. garlic paste

1 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped

In the Smoke

Cooking Directions: Royall Tailgater Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker

Open the lid and set the dial to “Smoke”, turn it on. After about five minutes you can shut the lid. Give it about 10 minutes to heat up. Patti has lined the drip pan with foil for me, it makes for easier clean up. I am using a Frog Mat today because of my scallops. They can sit on here and not get torn up.

Place your skewers directly onto the grill and just let them hang out in the smoke and get happy for 30 minutes or so. This is referred to as “smoking”; the temperature is around 165-180 degrees. 30 minutes of smoking is not enough to have any cooking effect on your meat, but it is enough to open up the pores, so that the meat can pick up all the flavor of the smoke.

After 30 minutes, turn the control up to medium (about 300 degrees) and pull everything off the grill.

When the grill hits 300 degrees put the beef, pork and garlic back on for 15 minutes. This is where I use my kitchen timer. Now, add the chicken. 5 minutes and the shrimp and scallops and sauce everything that you are saucing.

In about 10 minutes you should be “Good To Go”.

Fruit Kabobs on a Grill Grate

When it is looking like everyone is about done eating, turn the grill up to high and give it a few minutes to get the grates good and hot. Add your fruit kabobs for 3-4 minutes a side. Let me say this, I am a meat and potatoes kind of guy. I don’t eat much fruit. But, these were so good, hot and creamy soft. I ate two of them. Better make plenty for everyone.

Note: You do not have to do these the same way we did. Feel free to mix and match your favorite ingredients. The cooking times will be the same. It is all about “Time and Temputure”.

You do not have to use bamboo skewers; you can use your steel ones. But, because we are planning this for a road trip, I don’t want to wash my used skewers. I can just toss them.

If you use bamboo don’t forget to soak them or they will catch fire.

I am not paid by Grandville’s BBQ Jam. It is one of the very best BBQ Sauces/Jams we have ever had and it is so thick that you can use it in all kinds of things and as a cooking ingredient. We just really like it.

Note: I get a lot of questions about the kind of pellets you can use with a recipe. Keep in mind that a recipe is just an outline. Some you need follow closely like when you are making bread, but most you can do anything you can dream, our favorite way to cook. Feel free to mix and match the pellets until you find a combination you really like. Also, you are only smoking at temps less than 250 degrees, anything higher is cooking and there will not be much if any smoke so it does not matter what kind of pellet you are using.

Off The Grill so Let’s Eat

Grilled and Chilled

About our Recipes

We do our recipes on our patio where we have a lineup of grills, including Royall Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker, Traeger, Char Griller side box smoker, Charmglow, Char-Broil, The Big Easy, Brinkman and Weber. I call it our “Wall of Grill”. Our grilling styles are healthy and low fat and will fit pellet heads, gas, natural wood and even charcoal purists. Almost any of our recipes can be done on any kind of good BBQ.

The important thing to keep in mind is TIME & TEMPERATURE. You can even do some of them in the oven or crock pot, but, then you lose all the flavors you get from cooking outdoors. But sometimes it does rain.

Remember that a recipe is simply an outline; it is not written in stone. Don’t be afraid to make changes to suit your taste.

Take it and run with it….

Live Your Passion,

Ken & Patti

http://datenightdoins.com

Al Malekovic makes a fine all purpose sauce. Patti uses it for seasoning all kinds of things, but I like it on burgers and steaks. “Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce”

Check it out, for a free bottle go to his web site or email him. If you email him, tell him that you saw it here and we used it all up and to send us more...

www.countrybobs.com Al@countrybobs.com

For REAL GOOD BBQ Sauce / Jam check out Grandville’s Gourmet BBQ Jam

Steve 360 943 2861 @ www.grandvillesbbqsauces.com