Overruled By Taste (Buds)

Sometimes I think there is something wrong with my brain. 

Mrs. Nod said we were going to have a cookout for Nib's birthday this weekend. That traditionally means hotdogs and hamburgers.  I immediately thought, aw, man, that sounds like work over a hot grill. I don't wanna do that.

So what did I do instead? Spent 4 hours in the kitchen making fruit kebabs with Blynken out of melon, grapes, strawberries, kiwi, pineapple, mango, and watermelon. 

Heck, as long as I'm standing here doing kebabs, we might as well have chicken kebabs with mushrooms, tomatoes, red onion, and peppers. That chicken looks good, but it needs some kind of marinade. Oh, but Grandpa is diabetic so he can't have anything with sugar in it. Or salt. Or garlic.

Better make two kinds: rosemary-lime and rosemary-balsamic vinaigrette with shallots. Oh, and another with Old Bay. Hey, this other experiment with honey-lime-sriracha peppers is dynamite, let's make that too.

http://www.onceuponachef.com/

Of course the little kids are just going to want hot dogs. So we'll throw those on the grill anyway. Hmm. And bratwurst. Gotta have brats. Oh, and those pulled pork sandwiches that need to be eaten.

So ... I didn't avoid cooking over the grill on one of the hottest days of the year and I went to 3 times as much effort. 

Shrug.

Overruled by taste buds. Yum.

Killer Tuna Kebabs

Fridays are fish days, which if you're Catholic is nothing new. What is not-so-awesome about Fish Friday is that it frequently turns into tuna fish casserole due to lack of planning. Even that can be tasty and filling, but sometimes you just want something different.

I saw this picture of Tuna Kebabs on Epicurious (photo by Con Poulos) and got inspired. I didn't really have the ingredients on hand for Ginger-Chile marinade so I did what I do best: improvise.


It has been 95 degrees for about 11 days now in DC, and I didn't want to add more heat to the house, so that meant grilling. But because it is so stinkin' hot outside I didn't want to be out there for very long. Grilled tuna steak is awesome for this, because you don't want to cook it all the way through, just sear the outside - max 5 minutes.


I quick defrosted some sashimi-grade Ahi Tuna steaks that I got from Costco in a bowl of water. Leaving it just the tiniest bit frozen on the inside made cubing it into 1.5 inch bites simple. 


Next I quick chopped some bell peppers, an onion, and some pearl mushrooms, skewered them and put them on the grill outside while I finished my preparation. I put the cubed tuna in a bowl with some basting oil (grapeseed oil, canola oil, garlic, thyme, parsley), Old Bay seasoning, and some Kosher salt. I put that on some skewers with some additional mushrooms on a hot grill until all four sides were seared.


I put that atop some 90-second Jasmine Rice in a pouch that my microwave happily took care of and - voila! I had some killer Tuna Kebabs. The basting oil (Wegmans!) and Kosher salt really made this dish sing.  Great for summer and hot days. Try it and see. Bon appetite!