Skewering meat and grilling it lends a fun, caveman quality to preparing dinner. Or maybe that’s just us. Anyway, we enjoy kebabs (or kabobs, if you prefer) and especially appreciate the versatility of this grilling technique in terms of proteins (including beef and pork) and veggie combinations, as well as marinades and sauces. This recipe from one of our favorite grilling books, “Weber’s Real Grilling,” uses both a marinade and a sauce, but is still quick and easy enough for a weeknight. The bright, fresh flavor of the basil sauce goes well with the grilled pork and mushrooms tossed in an olive oil marinade seasoned with thyme and celery salt.
The ingredients for the marinade include olive oil, salt, pepper, dried thyme, and celery salt. The sauce includes more olive oil, white wine vinegar, green onions, fresh basil, garlic and salt & pepper.
To make the sauce, start by mincing the garlic, chopping the green onions (white and green parts) and chopping the basil.
Add the olive oil, white wine vinegar and salt & pepper to a small bowl.
Whisk in the onions, basil and garlic.
To make the marinade, in a separate bowl whisk together the olive oil, dried thyme, celery salt and salt & pepper.
Trim the excess fat and silver skin from the pork tenderloin.
Then cut the pork into 1-2 inch sized pieces. You’ll want to try to make the pieces as uniform in size as possible so that they will cook evenly and at the same rate.
Remove the stems from the mushrooms and toss them with the pork in the marinade.
Thread the pork and mushrooms onto the skewers, alternating them along each skewer. Set the pork skewers aside to rest at room temperature for about 10-15 minutes before grilling. Grill the kebabs over direct high heat, turning once, until the pork is barely pink in the center — about 8-10 minutes total.
Remove the finished pork and mushrooms from the skewers and serve with some of the sauce spooned over the top. We paired ours with a rice side dish. Meat. Simple. Good. And so easy a caveman could make it.