How to Throw A Shish Kebab Party from ‘Milk Bar Life’

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Photo: Clarkson Potter

Christina Tosi and the crew at Milk Bar know something about partying. So we’re happy to take their advice on how to host a good backyard barbecue. Here, the MasterChef judge tells you everything you need to know for cooking up a kebab storm straight from ‘Milk Bar Life’s Cookout/Bonfire chapter. Just in time for July 4th cookouts! Read on, and below, enjoy a just-released trailer for Tosi’s newest cookbook, Milk Bar Life.

SHISH KEBABS

Shish kebabs are a great way to make your friends cook for themselves. Almost anything can be skewered or grilled, and everyone likes food on a stick.

  • A few guidelines for a successful shish kebab party:

  • Soak bamboo skewers in water for 2 hours or overnight. (If you have metal skewers, well, then, you are fancier than I am.)

  • Marinate anything that needs marinating.

  • Have all the vegetables and meats cut and prepped before you start building skewers.

  • Oil and salt everything before it hits the grill. Oil is a conduit of heat: if it’s not oiled, it won’t grill as well or as fast as you want it to. And salt = flavor.

  • Meditate on a few deconstructed kebab themes to match your party: sports (chicken wing, chicken wing, chicken wing), Francophile (cubed baguette, ham, Swiss), New Yorker (cabbage/sauerkraut, brisket slathered in spicy mustard, cubes of rye bread). Or just follow some of my other favorites below.

Technically marination is the process of soaking food in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking. But guess what? These marinades are also awesome as laterades. Made fresh (read: they haven’t bathed any raw proteins), they really turn up the volume and flavor of shredded cooked meat, which otherwise has a tend to dry out.

Classic Midwestern: Beef, potato, onion, beef, potato, onion; Use any kind of beef chunks here, marinated in one of the marinades on pages 188 to 191. For the fingerling potatoes and pearl onions, fill a medium pot with water and bring it to a boil. Add the fingerlings and boil until they offer just the barest resistance to the tip of a sharp knife, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pot with a slotted spoon. Drop in the onions and boil for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the pot, drain well, and slide them out of their skins. Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice them in half and toss to coat with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

All-American: Bun, hot dog, dill pickle, red onion, hot dog, bun. Slice hot dogs on a diagonal into 11⁄2-inch pieces. Slice red onions into wedges. Brush Martin’s potato rolls with butter and season with salt and pepper, then cut each half into 4 pieces.

Mediterranean: lemon wedge, tilapia fillet or small chunk, green olive, green olive, green olive, tilapia, lemon wedge

Dessert: Buttered/sugared cubes o’ bread/doughnut/ muffin/cake, fruit chunks (pineapple, bananas, peaches), citrus wedges

MARINADES

Meat wants to be marinated. (So do vegetables, a lot of the time.) So give it what it wants: submerge the object of your affection in one of these marinades, cover the bowl with plastic or a tight-fitting lid, and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours, or up to 24 hours, depending on size and cut. Remember that maximum flavor comes with time. Most proteins work well in many marinades, but here is a list of my favorites:

  • Shrimp (peel and eat) in Chile-Lime-Soy Marinade

  • Beef in Chile-Lime-Soy Marinade or Yogurt-Sriracha Marinade

  • Pork of any shape or size in Cubano Marinade

  • Chicken or turkey in Yogurt-Sriracha Marinade

Cubano (Makes about 3 cups)

This is not a sissy marinade: it’s wildly robust and will punch you in the face if you’re not ready for it. We worked backward on it when we wanted to roast some pork Cuban style but couldn’t get enough flavor to penetrate the meat. Finally we turned up the flavor volume with an ungodly amount of garlic and cumin.

1 1⁄2 cups orange juice (store-bought is fine)
1 1⁄2 cups lemon juice
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 1⁄2 tablespoons ground cumin
10 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

Whisk together all of the ingredients in a large bowl.

Chile-lime soy (Makes about 2 cups)

David Chang has taught me a great deal, and though I’ve worked for many chefs, I’ve never met anyone else who has influenced me so strongly in terms of staple ingredients and the balance of flavor they provide. In nearly every dish I’ve seen him prepare, he seasons and balances flavors as needed with the following pantry staples:

Sweet: apple juice or cider, light brown sugar, onion

Spice/heat: garlic, Thai chile pepper, black pepper, Dijon mustard

Salt: soy sauce

Acid: lime, garlic, Dijon mustard This marinade is my go-to. It’s sweet, spicy, salty, and acidic and makes everything it touches that much better.

1⁄2 cup apple juice or cider
1⁄2 cup soy sauce, such as Kikkoman
1⁄4 cup packed light brown sugar
1⁄2 small yellow onion, chopped
1 Thai or other small red chile pepper, seeded and sliced
3 limes, zested and juiced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons grapeseed or other neutral oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon black pepper
Whisk together all of the ingredients in a large bowl

Yogurt-Sriracha (Makes 1 ¾ cups)

Do your best Valley Girl impression: say “Sriracha is SO HOT right now.”

1 cup plain yogurt
1⁄2 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons Sriracha sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
1 lime, zested and juiced

Whisk together all of the ingredients in a large bowl.

Recipes reprinted from MILK BAR LIFE: Recipes and Stories Copyright © 2015 by Christina Tosi. Photos by Gabriele Stabile and Mark Ibold. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.