Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Southwest Pork Kebabs with Vegetables

After last night's dud of a meal, I did not have high hopes for tonight's dinner. The sad thing, for those of you who know about them, is that I passed up free hot-chee dogs for this. There is a restaurant called the Hamilton that is similar to a diner, where I live. They aren't on the menu but a hot-chee dog (or burger or omelet) consists of American cheese, mustard, chopped onions and "sauce" which is like a Greek chili on a hot dog. At the school carnival today they were 75% off for students and free for teachers. I resisted in order to be able to eat my dinner. Luckily, dinner was delicious. I really liked this pork marinade. We cooked this dinner using both the grill and the oven. I haven't quite gotten as far as grilling vegetables. So I roasted the squash, zucchini, and onions. The grape tomatoes, J grilled on skewers. The pork was also grilled on skewers. I desperately need to buy some metal skewers because no matter how long I soak the wooden ones, they still tend to burn up. This dinner was just delicious. I'm definitely going to save the marinade recipe. I even forgot the cilantro that was supposed to go on the tomatoes but I didn't miss it at all.

Southwest Pork Kebabs with Vegetables (adapted from
Ladyberd's Kitchen)

Juice of one orange (about 1/2 cup)
1 1/2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (plus a little more or a spray for the vegetables)
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 1/2 Tbsp. minced garlic (approx. 4 cloves)
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. Hot smoked paprika (I used the Hungarian variety because it was all I could find)
3/4 tsp. dried oregano
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
~1 lb. pork loin (here I used pork tenderloin), trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 pint grape tomatoes
1/2 yellow squash, thickly sliced
1/2 zucchini, thickly sliced
1 red onion, quartered
Combine all of the marinade ingredients in bowl.
  1. Add the pork and toss to coat thoroughly.
  2. Cover and put it in the fridge for at least an hour (mine marinated for approx. 3 hours).
  3. Just before cooking, preheat grill on high.
  4. Thread pork and tomatoes onto separate skewers. Discard excess marinade.
  5. Grill on high direct heat for 3-4 minutes on each side. Let rest 2-3 minutes before removing from skewers.
  6. Before the pork and tomatoes go on the grill, line a baking sheet with foil (for less clean up) and broil the remaining vegetables (zucchini, squash, and onion) in the oven on high until they reach desired doneness (approx. 10 min). Everything should be ready at about the same time.

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