Kebabs make it a party

3 marinades for 3 meats for Memorial Day grilling

Whatever the weather, Memorial Day weekend opens grilling season. Steaks, chicken, burgers and hot dogs will grace the grill through summer’s sultry afternoons and long, soft evenings.

For special occasions, though, offering kebabs will please everyone at the table. Though they’re a little fussy to make, kebabs invariably delight diners. What is it about dinner on a stick?

We have marinades suitable for beef, lamb and shrimp, with suggestions for sauces and side dishes that will make your grilling adventure a success.

First, a couple of tips. Skewer meat and vegetables separately. Although the ready-made kebabs offered at grocery store meat counters look appealing, meat and vegetables cook at different speeds. Putting them on the same skewer will mean underdone meat and perfect vegetables — or perfect meat and overdone vegetables. Cherry tomatoes always seem to fall off during cooking.

Leave a bit of space between the pieces when you skewer them so each can cook to perfection.

Vegetable kebabs don’t have to be limited to peppers, zucchini, cherry tomatoes and onion. Try making mushroom skewers, mixing portobello, cremini, white button and shiitake. Or consider ratatouille skewers of Japanese eggplant rounds, zucchini, jarred roasted peppers and onion chunks. Squash skewers could include

chopped butternut squash — buy the pre-cut stuff at the grocery, and precook it until it can just be pierced with a fork — as well as zucchini and yellow squash. Crucifer skewers of blanched cauliflower, broccoli florets and Brussels sprouts sweeten when grilled. Mix suitable fruits with vegetables if you like; pineapple’s a good choice, as are peaches.

Whatever your vegetable skewer choices, cook them on a cooler area of the grill, and brush them as they cook with olive oil warmed with crushed garlic, a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Plan on one to two skewers of meat or shrimp and one of vegetables for each guest. But you don’t have to serve the vegetables on the skewers. Slide the cooked vegetables off onto a platter, and everyone can have some of everything.

Whether you choose wooden or metal skewers, select long ones rather than short. Doing so gives the chef a cooler part of the skewer to use as a handle, which makes turning the kebabs easier.

Kebabs cook quickly, so you’ll need to baby-sit them at the grill, turning them frequently.

Lime-marinated skirt or flank steak pairs nicely with saffron rice and a sauce of harissa or Sriracha thinned with Greek yogurt to soften its fierce heat. We like skirt and flank steak for their intensely beefy flavor, but there’s a trick to these sometimes-tough cuts. Slice them across the grain and at an oblique angle — aim for about a 45-degree angle. The strips will be wider, and more tender to the tooth.

If lamb kebabs are your choice, the herby Yemeni sauce called z’hug complements lamb’s richness and stands up to the flavors of its robust marinade. Serve on a bed of regular or Israeli couscous — the multicolored large couscous makes an attractive plate.

Shrimp marinated in white wine with orange juice and zest, green onion, crushed garlic and black pepper, then wrapped in bacon before skewering offers a fresh, citrusy flavor profile with smoky overtones. The traditional Mississippi favorite comeback sauce is a fine companion (and it’s easy to make).

Steamed or boiled rice dressed with a profusion of chopped fresh herbs — parsley, cilantro, marjoram, thyme, summer savory or a mix are good choices — would set off the plate beautifully.