Summer Dining Continued: Mrs. Young's Shishkabob

Keeping with the same theme of "sometimes simpler is better," this weekend we enjoyed one of our favorite summer dinners: shishkabob. This feast requires a commitment to prep work, but the ingredients are simple and most of the effort is needed the day before your barbeque, freeing up your day-of-event for cooking other dishes, or cleaning, or relaxing.

The Young's have been family friends for ages and Linda traditionally served this dish every Independence Day. She developed the marinade while living in Greece and was kind enough to share the recipe with me several years back. It's another instance where it seems like there should be more involved, because the result is guaranteed to please. The beef kabobs are served with grilled veggies, pita bread and tzatziki sauce. We also usually cook up a bowl of rice pilaf as a side dish.

Since we were entertaining family from out of state that we haven't seen in nearly two years, I wanted to really make this afternoon's meal special. So, I decided to try some shrimp in the same marinade, in addition to the traditional beef. I started marinating the shrimp about three hours before grilling (rather than the 24 hours that I give the beef). The result was outstanding. I will definitely include shrimp again in the future as I am undecided as to which I like better -- the beef or shrimp.

Marinade (for 2 lbs. of beef, cubed)
1 T. minced onion (I find that grating the onion provides great onion flavor throughout the marinade without a bunch of little chunks of onion)
2 T. olive oil

Splash red wine vinegar (see note below)
Juice from 1/2 a lemon (see note below)
2 T. fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Note: through the years I’ve strayed from the original and added a splash of red wine vinegar and juice of half a lemon. Both of these allow for a shorter marinade time, if needed, and add good flavor. 

For best results, marinade beef for 24 hours. And, if using wooden skewers, make sure you soak them 30 minutes before use.

Tzatziki Sauce
1 cucumber (chopped and seeded)
1/2 onion, minced (again, I grated the onion and only needed 1/4 onion)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 c. sour cream or plain, greek yogurt

Combine ingredients and refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving to allow flavors to marry. I sometimes add a little fresh parsley since I have it on hand for the marinade.