Feast on a stick

EAGER TO MAKE HEALTHIER MEALS THIS YEAR? YOU’LL LOVE STEVE CUMPER’S SATISFYING CHICKEN SKEWERS AND SALAD.

SKEWERED: SUBJECT TO sharp criticism or critical analysis. Or: fastened together or pierced with a pin or skewer.

Who doesn’t like a good skewering these days? Look around – every little local wine bar with a snacks menu has a version of some type. These offerings can be grouped into three categories: The Prosaic: beef, lamb, pork, chicken (maybe fish chunks); The Cutting Edge: simmered vulture tendon, sous vide cavy cheek… you get the picture; and The Economic Masquerading as Edgy: chicken hearts, lamb liver, and any kind of mince.

“A couple of nicely charred skewers, a smoodgy sweep of glossy sauce with a few micro herbs, then bish bash bosh, that’ll be $30” – kerching!

Everything can be skewered. Why are we so preoccupied with this method of poking a stick through flesh then grilling it? Is it a subconscious nod to St Lawrence? Are we channelling our inner Vlad the Impaler?

My lurid conjectures aside, what’s not to like? Who hasn’t been drawn to the smoky allure of grilled street food when on holidays? What person can resist the pungent waft of charred meat, sizzling and sputtering over coals? Crikey, even the neighbour’s weekend barbecue aromas can get the tummy grumbling.

One of my absolute favourites is satay chicken. Marinated chicken thigh pieces, threaded onto skewers, grilled over coals to a lovely char, then served with a flourish of spicy peanut sambal. These dainty offerings are a far cry from the clumsy and somewhat inelegant kebabs of yesteryear – those lengthy metal harpoons often served in a dangling cluster at the table, with wodges of flesh punctuated by raw onion and red capsicum. Perhaps this was just my experience, so it would be unfair to blame the upholders of the High Art of Kebabs for the transgressions of our 1970s dinner parties or 2am food-van feeds after a night on the tiles.

Prior to uprooting my family to very Anglocentric southern Tasmania, we lived in the vibrant, multicultural inner Melbourne suburb of Coburg. Here, we were able to enjoy fabulous Turkish, Lebanese and other Middle Eastern foods just by doing a footpath loop of Sydney Road. One could experience the whole rainbow of grilled meats, from the aforementioned shish kebab to the doner kebab, souvlaki, shashlik, yiros, gyros and shawarma.

To illustrate the universal appeal of grilled meat on sticks, my 14-yearold son Archie and I were travelling with a group in India. In Rajasthan one evening, we were sitting down for some wonderful-smelling grilled skewers of spiced mutton and I noticed that a family of four Germans was a bit perplexed at the sight of the food. Grabbing some naan and spreading it with a liberal amount of raita, I then unspooled the mutton from the sticks and heaped it into the centre of the bread before rolling it up.

‘Aaah, kebab!’ they said, almost in unison, before eagerly copying me.

See, everyone loves grilled meat on sticks of some kind.

Happy skewering!

GRILLED CHICKEN SKEWERS & SMASHED CUCUMBER SALAD

Serves 4

Skewers, for grilling

1kg skinless chicken thighs

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

SMASHED CUCUMBER SALAD

1 red chilli, finely sliced

5 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 tablespoons grated palm sugar

1 tablespoon lime or lemon juice

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

4 lime leaves, very finely sliced

3 large cucumbers, peeled

1 cup roasted peanuts, roughly chopped

Immerse the skewers in water for an hour or two. Chop the chicken into 2cm x 2cm pieces. Place the chicken in a bowl with the oyster and hoisin sauces and sesame oil; mix thoroughly.

Thread the meat onto the skewers evenly; let sit at room temperature.

To make the smashed cucumber salad, combine the chilli, garlic, fish sauce, palm sugar, juice and vinegar in a bowl. Mix well and add more to achieve a balance of salty, sweet, sour and hot. Add the lime leaves.

Cut the cucumbers into 5cm lengths, then halve them lengthways and place them on a chopping board, cut-side down. Hit them with a mallet until they split and flatten. Place in a bowl and pour over the dressing. Let macerate.

Now, grill the skewers (preferably over a charcoal grill) to your liking. Scatter the peanuts over the salad and serve immediately.