Surf 'n' Turf Kabobs and Grilled Veggies

My Leffe has a proper, matching glass. Some Pubs in
Germany won't serve you a particular beer if they don't
have the matching glass.

I have long grouped kabobs in with the scourge of the grill like hamburgers, hot dogs, boneless chicken breast and brats. I love burgers, hot dogs, chicken and bratwurst and think that cooking them on a stovetop is a travesty! If you serve your family a boiled hot dog, you should be tried for food crimes, because for some reason, a grill just makes them so much better. Same with a burger and brats (and anything else for that matter). I love the results of a grilled burger, brats, kabob, chicken, whatever. But I don't think they are worth all the time it takes to get a grill going, getting the coals to the right temp and then cooking them for a mere 4 minutes then wasting all that heat and charcoal (yes, only charcoal. If you want to cook with gas, get a nice stovetop). It just seems like a waste. That's why when I do any of these items I go big. It's either for a party of folks, or I do a load of kabobs with a ton of stuff on them.
I have found a way to make just about anything on the grill. Even if it involves purchasing pricey grill baskets and cast iron cookware in many shapes and sizes in order to not have to run inside and check what's on the stovetop. It's worth it to me to buy quality stuff that won't melt on the grill or rust in the dishwasher (the grill basket of course, I never dishwash my CI). I recommend this to others as well. Buy heavy stainless steel bowls or heavy aluminum. The thin stuff will disappoint you just like any other cheap stuff you buy for the kitchen. Good kitchen equipment isn't cheap and cheap kitchen equipment isn't good.
Anyways, on to the recipe.

Surf 'n' Turf Kabobs

Ingredients:

• Thick (1"-1.5" thick beef cubes of whatever kind you like (if you like inch thick filets, go for it. If you like inch thick chuck steaks, that's awesome too! It's all free game here)
• 12 Raw, fresh, shell on, uncooked shrimp (you can use peeled shrimp, but the shell will protect the fragile shrimp meat from the fire of the grill. Also, DO NOT use precooked shrimp. Would you use precooked steak for anything other than dog food? No. So apply the same thing with grilling shrimp)
• 1 Pineapple: topped, bottomed and cored. Cut into 1" cubes
• 3 Bell Peppers: Various colors, cut into 1" pieces
• 3 Red/Purple Onions: Quartered, peeled
• 12-15 Cherry Tomatoes
• 2 Yellow Squash: Topped, halved, cut into 3/4" pieces
• 2 Zucchini: Topped, halved, cut into 3/4" pieces
• 6-10 Big Freakin' Mushrooms: Washed
• 1/2 Lemon Juice
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO): Enough to coat all the stuff in this recipe
• Kosher Salt: Season to taste
• Pepper: Season to taste
• Paprika: Season to taste
• Garlic Powder: Season to taste
• Celery Seed: Season to taste
• Chipotle Chili Seasoning: Season to taste
• Dark Brown Sugar: 3/4 Cup
• Cinnamon: Season to taste
• Turmeric: Season to taste
• Ground Ginger: Season to taste
• 2 Wire Coat Hangers, untreated metal (I'll explain later)
• Leffe Blonde Abbey Ale (just to sip on while grilling) Season to taste I guess, add as much as you'd like!

Okay, so the biggest thing I can emphasize here is to season everything separately. You would never season your veggies like your steak and you would never season seafood with the same stuff as your sweets so separately is the way to go. Deal with the massive amounts of dishes later, it's cooking time!

A place for everything and everything in it's place. And
an angry wife who doesn't understand why I dirty twice
as many dishes as she does when I make dinner.

Method:

1. Place Beef Cubes into bowl. Pour EVOO over the top and toss to coat. Then season with kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika and chipotle chili powder. Mix with your hands. You can try a spoon, a fork, a magic wand, but nothing will work as well as you CLEAN hands. Set aside.
2. Place shrimp in a bowl and season delicately with kosher salt, lemon juice, celery seed (caraway seeds would work too), pepper. Toss to coat and set aside.
3. Place all cut vegetables except for mushrooms in large bowl. Cover with EVOO. Toss to coat. Season with kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika. Toss again to coat.
4. Season mushrooms lightly with EVOO. Season lightly with kosher salt (mushrooms have a natural musty flavor. When if you season them with the rest of the vegetables, they will lose their mustiness and will taste like everything else. The point of separating your ingredients is to bring out all the individual flavors. Mix if you must, but for me and my house, we will eat musty mushrooms). Toss and set aside.
5. Place pineapple in bowl. Season with brown sugar, cinnamon, turmeric, ground ginger. Stir until a thick, sugary coating covers the pineapple. Set aside.

                                                    

Note the coat hanger shaped kabobs

Now this is the point when you get all your skewers and start ramming them through all your meat and veggies and get excited about your awesome ingredients sprawled out in front of you. This is, in reality, where I started freaking out because I could only find 4/10 of my skewers and started cursing the high heavens because all this food was going to be wasted or cooked 4 skewers at a time. But then I had an epiphany! I thought back to an ad I had seen online about some wire skewers that you could put on a grill and you could get 4 of them--But wait there [was] more! Get two more for FREE! Anyways, I didn't have any of these, but I did have wire coat hangers. So I clipped off the hook and started skewer...ing.

I filled the 4 skewers and 2 coat hangers with all the meat and veggies I could and then tossed the rest of the veggies in the grill basket.

I only use one rule when skeoring (look, I invented a new word). Meat does not touch meat. In other words, no surf touching turf. Since you're cooking it all on a hot grill, I don't know that it would really harm anything but it just seems dirty to me. It also doesn't look as good as it could with veggies in between. Other than no surf touching turf, it's a free-for-all. Use a pattern, use a color scheme, whatever suits you!

My method for getting the grill ripping hot really quick.

Now, the grillin'! Get your grill ripping hot to heat up your grates then let them cool to about 450-500 degrees. Toss on the skewers, toss on the grill basket with the extra veggies, sip on your Leffe Blonde Abbey Ale and enjoy the smoke in your face and the chill of the German evening.

Use the beef as a gauge of doneness. When the beef is about medium, pull skewers and let them rest for 5 minutes or so. 

More done than I'd like, but good nonetheless.

Your veggie basket should be close to done when you pull the kabobs so when the meat is done resting, pull the veggies and toss them in a serving bowl.

Grilled veggies. Best way to get kids to eat them!

This recipe really emphasizes "season to taste." This is the best part of grilling. The grill seems to erase mistakes and over seasoning, under seasoning and complete mess ups. On the same hand, it seems to blend flavors so well that even the worst grilling comes out tasting better than if it were made on a stovetop. Enjoy!