Cricket & Kebabs

It was by a stroke of luck that we found out the other day that there is a local cricket club that have practice sessions for children under 9 on a Saturday morning. A 1 hour session for 2 quid! Book ‘em in we thought.

Today was the first morning that we took them but first we had to pay a visit to the farm shop. Cricket practice starts at 10am and the farm shop opens at 9am and its a 20+ minute drive back from the farm shop.cricket blog

You see, normally we are in the shop for at least twenty minutes, we can never decide on what we want and when we do Mick the owner will say “Jez (yeah, it’s ‘Ome but Mick insists on calling me Jez. To be fair Mick is actually Mike but we call him Mick, so I don’t complain! Mick/Mikes assistant is also called Mick… confused?)I’ve got this if you want it…” and then it makes it even more difficult to decide. Today we broke all records. In and out in less than 10 minutes! A leg of lamb for Sunday and a nice salmon cut of beef for today.

So we went to cricket practice, Dj and MissT just watched for this one (but decided they want to do it next week)and CurlyE and Lil’MrM Joined in and gave it their best. They loved it! Although Lil’MrM was testing the patience of the coach for the last 15 minutes. All in all though it was fantastic and they can’t wait to return next week.

So then it was home. What to do with the beef? The suns out, its dry and reasonably warm. I think the Smoker or BBQ has to be bought in to play. Sweet chili beef kebabs with one half of the beef leaving a small roasting piece to do on the BBQ for lunches and tea in the week. Sounds like a plan…

Smoker Blog

 

The piece of beef I bought was about 2.5 Kilo. I cut it in half leaving the thick end whole to roast. The other half I cut into cubes, roughly 2 centimeter in size to make into kebabs.

Marinade

2 tablespoons of ‘Ome-made Chili sauce (theres a recipe for a basic chili sauce on the site)or use your favourite brand to the strength you require. If you have no chili sauce you can use a tablespoon of vinegar (ideally white wine or cider) and a teaspoon of chili powder (or more if you like the heat!)

1 level teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons of sugar

A Good grind of black pepper

 

Put the marinade ingredients in a bowl, mix together and then pour over the meat (you can pour a bit over the whole piece if you want to give that a nice glaze after being roasted). Massage the marinade into the meat and then leave in the fridge to marinate (up to twenty four hours). Remove the meat from the fridge about 30 minutes before your going to BBQ or grill. It will cook more evenly and taste better for not being stone cold when it goes on the heat.

If using bamboo skewers for your kebab soak them in water for a good half hour to prevent them burning. Put about half a tablespoon of oil onto the meat and stir to coat. Thread the marinated meat onto the skewers, try not to overcrowd them. You want a nice even char on all sides of the meat.

Then cook on the BBQ for 10 – 15 minutes (turning every 4 – 5 minutes) or until done to your liking. The kebabs could also be cooked under a grill or in a hot oven. If doing in the oven you can always give them a quick searing with a blowtorch when they come out to give them that charred BBQ flavour.

Beef Kebabs blog

You can of course put onion, tomatoes, peppers etc onto your meat skewers. Personally I prefer to do the veg separate, the meat cooks better that way.

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