Cooking with the Bubba: A series of original recipes #3- Shish Kebob, island style

Let's grill something. How about a little shish kabob? But not your typical marinated beef cubes on a skewer along with green pepper, onion, tomato and mushroom. Too ordinary. Want to do something more creative? Try this on your shish kabob stick:

Ingredients (for 4 or 5 large skewers): 12-16 large sea scallops, 12 small whole mushrooms, 12 small tomatillas (spicy green tomato-like vegetables found in Latino produce stores), 1/2 small calabatta squash, 2 small to medium bell peppers, 1 or 2 unripe bananas.

Preparation: Wash vegetables, scrub mushrooms, peel bananas. Cut squash into quarters and nuke on high in covered bowl for about 8 minutes until slightly tender. Let cool and remove skin. Cut into 2 inch pieces. Also cut up the bell peppers and bananas into pieces big enough for your skewers. Now alternately add pepper and banana pieces, whole mushrooms, whole scallops and whole tomatillos to the skewers.

Marinade: Here's where you get to be still more creative. With this combination of ingredients you need to keep the marinade tropical or Asian in flavor. You can use a good bottled jerk sauce, baja lime marinade available at Trader Joe's, a bottled terriyaki sauce or create your own. I like to do up a marinade and basting sauce made from peanut butter, a little coconut milk, chili oil, rice vinegar, and a dash of sesame oil and soy sauce. Use enough peanut butter so that the consistency is thick enough to cling to the kabobs. Baste the filled skewers with your choice of marinade and keep them in the fridge a few hours.

Fini: Grill those bobs until the scallops are firm but not tough. Baste as much as you can while grilling. The more, the better. I've begun to use one of those hot dog/hamburger holders (see photo above) to avoid burning my fingers while turning skewers. You flip them all at once. It's much easier. Serve over a bed of couscous, orzo, or rice. You can add sunflower seeds or slivered almonds, and white raisins to your choice of bedding for a little more pizzazz. HOME