What’s fast and easy to cook, looks like you payed big bucks at a fancy restaurant? Why it’s grilled Skewered Shrimp and Foil Cooked Vegetables and it is fast, easy, virtually no clean up and tastes fantastic. If you have a grill, foil, a few bamboo skewers and a cast iron skillet then you have the making of a great meal. This can easily be done over a live fire and coals in your backyard fire pit or at a tailgating event.
All of the ingredients took just a few minutes to prep and the cooking time varied from 35 minutes for the rice to about 5 minutes for the shrimp. So from starting the grill to dinner table you are looking at about 1 hour tops and worth every minute of cooking time.
My secret ingredient for the whole recipe is All Spice Cafes “Caribbean Spice” Sauce which I used for marinating the shrimp. It is the perfect blend of allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, garlic and onions that just puts the shrimp over the top. I am a big fan of JD Cowles products and he has won quite a few awards for his sauces, you can check out his site All Spice Cafe here or call JD at 310-866-0926
The vegetables are just your basic broccoli, bell peppers, onions with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Just slice them all up, sprinkle them with some olive oil, salt and pepper, then wrap them in a double layer of foil. Cook till tender, about 15 minutes or longer depending on the doneness that you are looking for.
Cooking the rice was just as easy and all you need is a Cast iron skillet for the grill (if you want). I use Cast iron on my grills all the time, just think of your grill as a stove top and it opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Chop up some red onions and garlic then saute them in the skillet over coals until just tender with some olive oil. Take a double layer of foil and make a pouch, add your rice, water, onions and garlic. Seal tight and cook for 15 – 20 minutes. Yep, that easy.
Shrimp were skewered after marinating for 30 minutes (soak your bamboo skewers in water at the same time). I wrapped the ends of the skewers with foil to keep them from burning. Cook time 5 minutes.
So that’s the gist of it! I prepped everything in advance while the coals were heating up. Then started the onions and mushrooms because the rice was the first thing to start on the grill. Vegetables were next then the shrimp and it was fast cooking once the shrimp hit the grill. I cooked everything over direct heat and turned the foil pouches and shrimp only once. No sense in straining myself and it’s best to let the grill do the work!
Clean-up? Well I did have to wipe out the Cast iron pan, throw away the foil and wash the knife, cutting board and plate ……. not to tough for this Cook.
You can see even more picture on my Flickr photo page here.
Till my next adventure ….