Coal-fried meat is heavy food, so it is preferable to serve it with sauces, herbs, fresh vegetables, bread. Such a presentation is good for a regular outing, but barbecue is also prepared for special occasions, and such a table will be incomplete. We offer several options for barbecue snacks that complement any table.
General principles for the preparation of barbecue snacks
Appetizers served with barbecue should not be too sharp, sauces such as ketchup, adjika are better to make, but aromatic spices are required. Caucasian cuisine, to which it is customary to attribute grilled meat to coals, is famous for its spiciness and spice; as a result, cilantro, garlic, and black pepper are indispensable in our recipes. Caraway and coriander are required even when they are not on the seasoning list.
Shish kebab, in theory, should be hot and juicy, in practice this sometimes does not work, and in such cases snacks for shish kebab will be rescued, they can brighten up the failed main dish. Of course, snacks should contain a lot of sauce or marinade, if the meat was fat, then the pungency should be added.
The meat does not like a large amount of salt in the marinade, respectively, its quantity can be increased in snacks - immediately, during cooking, or provide this opportunity during the meal.
Shish kebab snacks are good if you manage to make them contrasting in taste - toasted meat is in perfect harmony with sweetish snacks. We specifically included in the selection a recipe for plum snacks.
Kebab appetizer: a recipe for a warm vegetable salad
A delicious traditional barbecue appetizer consists of vegetables baked over coals. Such a salad can be prepared at home, in this case we use the oven or grill in a pan. The appetizer will not have a characteristic smell of haze, but this will not make it less tasty.
Ingredients:
one eggplant;
three bell peppers;
four small tomatoes;
fresh greens of cilantro, parsley, dill;
hot peppers;
non-aromatic vegetable oil;
ground coriander;
garlic.
Cooking method:
We wash the greens and vegetables, lay them on a towel to dry. Without peeling vegetables, put them on the grill and bake, periodically turning over. When they become soft enough, and black tan marks appear on the peel, remove. If you use a barbecue without a wire rack, string vegetables on skewers, at home you can use a stove or grill pan.
Gently remove the peel from hot peppers, eggplant and tomatoes, and select seeds from the peppers with a spoon. Put the pulp in a bowl, and directly into it we divide it into pieces with a fork. It is not necessary to grind, the slices should be large.
Add coriander and garlic. It can be chopped finely, chopped with a grater or pressed through a press. The number is not limited, for a light garlic flavor you will need two small teeth, who like a pronounced flavor, can put more.
Grind the greens, send to the salad, add a little oil and mix all the ingredients thoroughly.
Original appetizer for pita shashlik with greens and cheese
A hearty snack that can be served with any barbecue instead of bread. It is desirable to prepare blanks at home and put them in a bag. Serve the pita bread warm, so put the parcels on the grill a few minutes before the kebab is ready.
Ingredients:
two pita leaves;
a bunch of parsley;
300 grams of low-melting cheese of any hard variety.
Cooking method:
Expand pita bread, cut the sheets with rectangles of 15 × 30 cm in size.
After washing the parsley, remove the stems and dry the leaves well, spreading them on a towel. Finely chopped dried herbs with a knife.
Cheese is cut into medium-sized cubes, mixed with parsley. You can add a little chopped garlic, but this is a matter of taste. It is not necessary to be limited to hard cheese, it can be feta cheese, mozzarella, suluguni.
For each piece of pita bread on the narrower side, closer to the edge, lay out a little filling and turn it into a roll.
The appetizer is ready, it remains to lay out the "convolutions" on the grill and fry on each side until blush.
Mushroom BBQ appetizer
This appetizer can be quickly prepared in nature. Two dishes are obtained from champignons at once: stuffed hats and mushroom legs baked with bacon. Mushrooms pre marinate, this can be done in advance.
Ingredients:
a pound of fresh champignons;
smoked chicken legs or chicken breast - 150 gr.;
soy sauce - 30 ml;
50 gr fresh lard;
a spoonful of spicy mustard;
cheese - 70 gr.;
a teaspoon of lemon juice;
mix of spices at your discretion.
Cooking method:
When preparing mushrooms, we clean the contaminated places with a knife, wash with water. Separating the legs from the hats, well dry both.
Mix lemon juice, soy sauce and mustard. Add some spices and spread the mushrooms in the marinade. Gently shake the container several times, leave the mushrooms in the marinade for at least 20 minutes. Mix periodically.
We cut into small cubes and combine the cheese with chicken, mix.
We take out the hats, wipe off the remaining marinade with a disposable towel, and then put it on the grate, with the side open, facing down. As soon as they are lightly browned, fill the hats with pieces of cheese and chicken toppings.
We cut fat into thin slices and put on skewers, alternating with mushroom legs.
We put skewers and hats on the wire rack, bake, periodically turning the skewers, about 10 minutes. We cook hats until the cheese melts.
Barbecue appetizer: a simple recipe for pickled onions
Serving onion to barbecue is a tradition. Most lovers of fried meat without such a supplement and barbecue is not barbecue. We offer a simple recipe for pickled onion snacks, which favorably emphasizes the taste of barbecue. Marinade is made from lemon juice, which gives a slight acidity and, unlike vinegar, does not have a pungent odor.
Ingredients:
large lemon;
large onion;
a teaspoon of vegetable oil;
a quarter glass of water;
two sprigs of parsley;
half a spoonful of fine salt and twice as much sugar.
Cooking method:
Wash the lemon, squeeze the juice. To facilitate the task, it is recommended to pour citrus with boiling water for two minutes. Filter the resulting juice through cheesecloth to isolate the remaining pulp and bone.
Peel the onion, cut in half and shred thinly. You can cut into rings, it is important that they are not thick.
Bringing the water to a boil, dissolve the sugar in it, and then the salt. Pour in the oil, boil for no more than 30 seconds, remove from the stove and mix with lemon juice.
Put the shredded onion in a bowl, pour hot marinade. Having closed the lid, leave it on the table for at least an hour.
When serving, complement the onion appetizer with chopped parsley.
Two types of spicy appetizer for tomato skewers with cheese and garlic
Who does not like a spicy salad of processed or hard cheese with mayonnaise and garlic? With fresh tomatoes from such a salad, two options for a bright barbecue snack are made: stuffed with cheese filling tomatoes, or spread on tomato rings.
Ingredients:
three small fresh tomatoes;
100 grams of any cheese;
garlic;
dressing mayonnaise.
Cooking method:
Grind cheese, it can be rubbed both large and small. Processed cheeses, if they stick to the surface of the grater, it is recommended to place them in the freezer for a quarter of an hour.
We clean three small or two large cloves of garlic, squeeze them with garlic squeezed to the cheese.
Add the mayonnaise and mix thoroughly so that the crushed garlic evenly spread to the snack. First, add one and a half tablespoons of sauce, if it turns out to be dry, add more.
There are two options for snacks. The first, when tomatoes are filled with cheese filling, the second is spread on tomatoes cut into circles.
To lay the cheese snack inside, from the fruits with a spoon, select all the seeds and a little pulp. Then the walls are dried with disposable towels and stuffed. For stability, the bottom of the tomatoes is cut a little. Such an appetizer can be prepared even before going out into the countryside, it is convenient in transportation. Stuffed tomatoes can be placed in a plastic container, where until the right moment they will not lose their shape and appearance.
The second option of such an appetizer is more suitable for a picnic in the country. Tomatoes are cut into circles, a centimeter thick, put a little cheese salad on each and evenly spread over the entire surface. Appetizer spread on a dish in neat rows. This method is unsuitable for transportation; juice can come out of chopped tomatoes during long-term storage.
Barbecue snacks: canned pickled plums
Marinated plums are also good with kebab, this snack can be easily prepared for future use. Cream canned according to this recipe is obtained with a spicy taste, in no way inferior to olives. They can be served as a full snack or added to salads from fresh vegetables. Marinade will also work, with it you can pickle meat or onions.
Ingredients:
dark plum - 800 gr.;
non-aromatic vegetable oil;
eight tablespoons of sugar;
5 tablespoons of food vinegar;
carnation umbrellas - 10 pcs.;
four small leaves of parsley;
fine salt - 5 tbsp. l
Cooking method:
Thoroughly wash half-liter cans of soda in hot water. Then rinse well and steam sterilize. We put spices on the banks.
Pour plum with cool water, let stand for half an hour, and then wash it, removing the remaining ponytails on the berries.
In several places of punctures each drain with a toothpick, fill the banks. Pour plums with boiling water, cover with a boiled lid and leave for 20 minutes. We repeat.
After the second time, pour all the water into a large pot and put on an intense fire. Pour a spoonful of oil into each jar. After adding sugar and salt, stir thoroughly until it boils so that the loose components are completely dissolved. Pour vinegar into the boiling marinade, stir well and immediately pour into the containers filled with plums. Roll up.
Turning the preservation onto the lids, wrap.
Tricks for preparing barbecue snacks - useful tips and tricks
We got out into the countryside, and suddenly the weather turned bad? It doesn’t matter if you manage to light even a small fire - brown the vegetables on it and take it with you, the skewers fried in a pan will be much tastier with such an appetizer!
Onions, if it needs to be marinated separately for appetizers, are cut thinner than for marinating meat. Pour boiling water with lemon juice or acid, but not vinegar!
Want to feast with smoke not in nature, but in a high-rise building? Nothing is impossible! Several dry branches from hardwood, better fruit trees, will help out. Set fire to one, observing all safety precautions, let it burn for a few seconds and, after blowing it quickly, dip it in a vegetable marinade with a seared end and leave it for half an hour. Do not worry about soot, in a barbecue grilled over coals it is much more, but such a marinade tastes much better than cooked with "liquid smoke".
