| I love shrimp! Anyway, any how, but especially off | | | | every inch to keep the skewers from rolling off, and |
| the grill. The problem with grilling delicate treats like | | | | more importantly, to lock the skewers in place so |
| shrimp is preventing them from either sticking, or | | | | they wouldn't tip once in place. |
| slipping through the grate! | | | | Now for a simple Shrimp Shish-Ka-Bob recipe. |
| Cooking a Shish-Ka-Bobs, with layers of yummy stuff | | | | Marinade the peeled shrimp in Teriyaki sauce for 1/2 |
| impaled on a skewer solves "slipping through the | | | | hour (I prefer Kikkoman). Since I had just picked the |
| grate", but not the sticking problem. No amount of | | | | shrimp up, and it was packed in crushed ice, I used a |
| PAM seems to work for me on the grill, and even | | | | small bowl for the shrimp/marinade mix set in a larger |
| worse, the spatula knocks off the best parts. I bet if | | | | bowl filled with the ice. I've found marinading shrimp |
| I looked, I could find manufactured skewer racks in a | | | | works best when kept cool, either on ice, or chilling in |
| specialty store - at a price! | | | | the fridge. I love the flavor of broiled tomatoes and |
| But I'm on a budget, I don't like shopping, and I have | | | | onions, and pineapple chunks blend perfectly with the |
| 1 pound of golden prawn ("king of shrimp") waiting to | | | | taste of teriyaki. I cut cherry tomatoes in half and |
| grill! | | | | quartered an onion. Using (well soaked!) bamboo |
| I rummaged around my workshop after picking up | | | | skewers, I just stabbed it all together. Artistically, I |
| the shrimp thinking I had some scrap angle, either | | | | like to alternate the colors - red (tomato), white |
| steel or aluminum. Nope! But I did find a section of 1 | | | | (onion), yellow (pineapple-chunks), and pink (shrimp!). |
| 2" copper pipe from an old project, and galvanized | | | | Preheat the grill to HOT! - then lower to LOW before |
| wire from an even older project. Even better, copper | | | | you place your creation on your new Shish-Ka-Bob |
| is easy to work with, and the wire stock would | | | | racks! They don't take long to cook, and bamboo |
| make perfect banding material, both of which should | | | | doesn't take long to burn through! When you see the |
| survive the flames from my grill. I have a | | | | skin of the tomatoes start to shrivel, or the edges |
| well-stocked shop with hacksaws, band saws, and | | | | of the onion browning, it's done. |
| guess what - a tubing cutter! My scrap was 41" long. | | | | A nice variation on this recipe: roll the shrimp in honey |
| I measured my grill and decided a 10" top width, with | | | | and dust them in finely chopped almond slices! |
| two 5 1/4" bottoms pieces all wire-tied and bundled | | | | I hope you enjoyed my lunch recipe and my |
| together, would give me the maximum skewer area | | | | home-built skewer rack as much as I did. By the |
| and bottom footprint. | | | | way, the racks worked perfectly, the banded |
| Twist-screw, twist-screw and the tubing easily | | | | together bundles of copper tube were stable, |
| parted using the tubing cutter! You can use a | | | | elevated the skewers off the surface, but kept |
| hacksaw, but the tubing cuter leaves a perfect | | | | them close, and prevented them from moving so |
| finished end. I cut the wire into 6" lengths and used it | | | | that I could rotate the skewers for even cooking. |
| just like wire-ties on a bread loaf (though I did use | | | | Best of all - anyone can build this cooker |
| duck-bill pliers to really cinch the twists. Snip, snip with | | | | improvement project from scrap, ingenuity, and a |
| diagonal pliers to trim of the excess, and wallah! One | | | | little time! |
| last improvement: I cut v-grooves in the top surface | | | | |