Sizzling Shrimp Skewers with Big Bertha Peppers & Other Garden Vegtables

My recipe for “Sizzling Shrimp Skewers” is really intended to show off my summer garden vegetable crop. This year, sweet Big Bertha Peppers, several hot peppers and eggplant are the star vegetables in my tumultuous Louisiana garden. To highlight the flavors of the vegetables, I grilled them on my little countertop Chefman Panini Press & Grill, basting with a honey, garlic, ginger and soy sauce marinade. Plus, I added in grilled shirmp skewers, rice and several other summer vegetables to make was a complete meal. Nothing tastes better than fresh vegetables which you have just picked from a garden. Although gardening is alot of work, a couple of these meals makes the effort rewarding.

“Pepper Land” and Big Bertha Peppers

This year, I am welcoming a new type of pepper, “Big Bertha Peppers,” into my summer garden. These peppers are large and sweet. They rate “zero” on the Scoville scale of chile pungency or “heat” so they are not hot at all. Contrast that to Anaheim peppers (the long, skinny pepper in the photo) which are surpisingly hot. Big Bertha Peppers probably aren’t available in a grocery stores. These elongated green bell peppers are a hybrid pepper and can grow up to 7-inch in length. They can become quite huge! Any green bell pepper can be substututed for Big Bertha Peppers. However, if you can find these peppers, they are great! Here are my Big Bertha Peppers, a Japanese eggplant and Aneheim pepper plus some parsley — all from my garden.

Early Spring Louisiana Gardens

In Louisiana, you typically plant summer vegetables — such as cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini and tomatoes — in March. And there is a reason for early gardens. Once the temperature gets hot, blossoms won’t “set” and make fruit. However, that didn’t stop me from ignoring all gardening wisdom. I was two months late in planting vegetables in my garden this year and there weren’t many seedling varieties left to purchase from the plant nursery. I found ten types of peppers, three types of eggplant, one cucumber and several tomato plants. I have lots of cucumber and tomato blossoms — let’s hope that the bees find them and that our spell of cooler nights is enough for the tomato blossoms to pollinate and to set!

My little puppy is my gardening companion; when she sees me at the back door; she can’t wait to go outside to explore and help.

Vegetable Kebobs

I wanted to find a way to show off the sweet flavor of the Big Bertha Peppers. These peppers are large enough that it would work to stuff them with a filling such as ground beef, shrimp, rice or cheese. However, for a change, I decided to baste with an oriental-type marinade and grill the vegetables. They turned out prefectly.

I added a couple of other vegetables to my kebobs in addition to the eggplant, Anaheim pepper and Big Bertha peppers. These are a zucchini (which usually grows in my garden), tomatoes and pickled cherry peppers. Plus, I threaded on some white onion chunks and a few pineapple tidbits.

Cherry peppers (bottom left in photo) grow well in Louisiana gardens. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any seedlings this year at the gardening nursery to plant in my garden. These are pickled cherry peppers from last summer’s garden. They add a great “pop” to the kebobs.

Chefman Panini Press & Grill

I have a little Chefman Panini Press & Grill which rarely gets used. The sandwich press folds out flat so the appliance doubles as a grill. Occasionally, this kitchen appliance becomes handy, such as for grilling small amounts. It didn’t make sense to heat up a large outside BBQ grill just to make three shrimp skewers plus vegetable kebobs for supper for two folks. This appliance was just the solution.

Chefman Panini Maker & Grill Secret

The grill has two cooking settings — “on” and “off.” There is no way to adjust the temperature, so I don’t find many uses for this appliance. However, quite by accident, I discovered the secret to using the grill. You must close the grill and pre-heat the grates for about 30 minutes to allow the grates to heat up. Then the grill became quite hot and actually cooks the vegetables and shrimp. I’ve had disasters in the past, but this time was a rewarding success using the appliance! Yeah!

The lesson here is that this little Chefman grill cooks by direct heat — like a skillet or stovetop grill. In contrast, an oven broiler or outside BBQ gril cooks primarily by indirect heat. It is a different cooking technique. So, allow plenty of time to heat the Chefman appliance and grill the food. (No Chefman grill? It is also easy to prepare this recipe using an oven broiler. I placed the food about 6 to 10″ away from the broiler heat.)

Making the Vegetable Kebobs

I sliced the peppers, eggplant, zucchini and onion crosswise so that they would lie flat on the grill, touch the grate and actually cook. I threaded all the vegetables onto skewers, oiled the grills and placed the kebobs on the hot grates, basting the vegetables with my oriental-style marinade. Occasionally, I turned the skewers over and basted again. This was easy to do on the countertop grill. No bending over to check an oven broiler. The vegetables are cooked through, but are not mushy.

Oriental-Style Marinade

To add flavor to this entrée, I basted both the vegetables and shrimp with an oriental-style marinade. This mild marinade added just a little “kick” to the kebobs. The ingredients included rice wine vinegar and canola oil, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, honey and salt. Plus, at the last minute, I added in pineapple juice (not shown).

To make the marinade, simply add all the ingredients — except for the oil — to a small bowl and stir to combine. Then whisk in the canola oil until blended.

I divided the marinade into two bowls — one for marinating the shrimp and one for basting the shrimp and vegetables as they grilled.

Sizzling Shrimp Skewers

Oh, yes, the sizzling shrimp skewers. Grilled shrimp complemented the vegetable kebobs and finished the meal. For the shrimp, I used medium-sized ones, 31 – 40 count. This means that there are 30 to 40 shrimp in one pound. I used 1/2 lb shrimp for the two of us; it was 18 shrimp.

In Louisiana, fresh shrimp are usually available in large supermarkets. However, you must peel and devein the shrimp yourself. That’s alot of work — and I always question how fresh the shrimp really are.

My preference is to purchase individually frozen shrimp. Then just remove from the package what you need to cook the meal and defrost the shrimp in cool water. Quick and simple.

Making the Shrimp Skewers

To make the shrimp kebobs, mix the drained, defrosted shrimp with about 1/2 cup of the marinade and let them soak up the flavors for about 1 hour or longer in the refrigerator. Then remove from the marinade and thread onto skewers. I didn’t add the shrimp to the vegetable kebobs since the shrimp cook much quicker. Plus, there is quite a size difference.

Lightly oil the grill and place the shrimp skewers onto the hot grill. (The shirmp need to touch the grates of the Chefman press & grill to cook!) Baste with marinade and cook until pink, turning once. This took about 5 minutes, total. And the shrimp do “sizzle” as they cook from the marinade dripping onto the grates.

To serve, I added rice, and more pineapple tidbits and parsley for garnish. Now, we have a meal!

For a comparison, I roasted some of the vegetable kebobs in my oven broiler. And, I actually preferred the Chefman appliance for this dish. The oven broiled vegetables cooked much quicker, but they became overcooked and mushy. If using an oven, watch things carefully! The Chefman grilled vegetables were perfect.

This was a successful way to show off my summer garden vegetables including the Big Bertha Peppers. The shrimp were delicious, too, thanks to the oriental-flavored marinade. These medium-sized shrimp packed flavor and they were cooked to perfection on the little grill. This was a tasty meal!

My final recipe is adjusted to serve four adults. Enjoy!