I can’t quite figure out if 8-23: Beef Kebabs with Red Wine Butter are supposed to be used for when you are serving fancy food in a casual situation (like a truffle and foie gras burger in Las Vegas) or casual food in a fancy situation (like food trucks at a wedding). I suppose this one could go either way, depending on the circumstances.
This recipe features not only kebabs, but a compound butter to serve with them. Simply Delicious is big on beef + compound butter–another example is 8-4: T-Bone Steak.
If you’re looking for some other types of kebabs/skewers for your hypothetical casual yet fancy grilling party, try 10-14: Lamb on Skewers or 9-23: Fruity Sausage Kebabs.
Note that they show baked potatoes on the recipe card (in the back, wrapped in foil), but they do not include the potatoes in the recipe itself–only as a suggested accompaniment mentioned at the end.
Ingredients. Keeping things meatless as I do, and I chose a “breakfast-type” sausage for this recipe. I’ve tagged this recipe gluten-free (as originally written), but ensure you use gluten-free sausage if you are concerned about gluten.
Red wine is a Cabernet Sauvignon that I think we got as a gift. I’m also including the potatoes.
Baked potatoes are easy–wash/scrub them, then stab them a few times with a fork. Preheat your oven to 350F and then let them cook for an hour or so, depending on how big they are and how many you’re making. Here’s Alton Brown’s method (pretty much what I gave you above), as well as a microwave version if you’re short on time/ovens.
Chopping the red onion in my mini-food processor.
I decided to make the butter right in the same processor bowl that I used to chop the onion. I probably should have used the big food processor to make this compound butter–the small one just can’t cream butter as well.
I ended up doing a lot of it by hand in a bowl. Probably would be a more consistent product throughout if I had used the big processor.
There’s just no way to even describe that. I swear that’s the wrapped up butter.
Since I’m using “fake” meat, I need to cook/assemble this in a slightly different method than prescribed in order for it to work properly. I’m going to brown these sausages in the pan first to give them some flavor, THEN put them on the skewer for the last bit of cooking over the grill/broiler.
I did the same (not pictured) for the “beef” pieces.
I threaded them all on the skewers (along with the peeled onions), and had intended to use my grill pan for these kebabs. However, either they are too big or my pan is too small. Either way, we’ve got a problem.
I chose to put them on a broiler pan instead and cook them that way. Good thing I already precooked most of it–this is just for some char/color.
Did you forget about your potatoes? They should be done about now. You can tell when they look all wrinkly like that.
Don’t forget about your butter, either. There’s a nice slice of it for you.
Blurry picture of after the broiling. They are definitely a bit darker, and you can see the onions cooked a bit as well. An actual grill would have probably been best, but I still haven’t invested in one yet.
Final plate, with baked potato. The butter was okay with the meat, but seemed to work best on the potato.
So now I ask you again–is this fancy casual, or casual fancy?
Grade: B+
