After-Work Gourmet by Lisa Messinger

Stick it to run-of-the-mill skewer recipes and instead pile on unexpected ingredients. All it takes is imagination or a peek into cultures outside your own.

Ted Allen, host of Food Network's top rated "Chopped" series and author of the new "In My Kitchen: 100 Recipes and Discoveries for Passionate Cooks" pinpoints new arenas in which to take a stab.

One of his favorite dishes is scampi. Give Allen a few minutes in the kitchen and the scampi will instead emerge as scampi skewers.

Imagine foods and flavors that make traditional pairs anyway and line them up on metal or pre-soaked bamboo skewers, like the DisneyFamily.com specialty that follows of balsamic pork and apple chunks with red onions.

Sometimes ethnic specialties we're used to eating on a plate surprise as outstanding skewer stars.

The longtime popular Los Angeles Thai restaurant Siam Cabin serves up a memorable special of crispy orange chicken skewers (battered spiced chicken meatballs) draped in tangerine sauce over curry rice, proving imaginative sticks can inspire unique sides as well.

Dessert isn't even out of bounds.

The PBS series "Globe Trekker" recently showed off Moroccan takes on simmering apples with butter and cinnamon and bananas with thyme, olive oil, almond extract and honey. Alternating these on skewers, wrapping them in foil and then lightly grilling them would put a twist on all the ordinary fruit skewers that may have come before.

Or simply take Pillsbury's suggestion of skewering chunks of cinnamon rolls, wrapping them in foil, lightly grilling and then drizzling them with chocolate and caramel sauces before serving.

BALSAMIC PORK AND APPLE SKEWERS

2 / 3 cup balsamic vinegar

1 / 3 cup brown sugar

1 / 3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 1 medium orange)

3 garlic cloves, smashed

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

1 green apple, cut into 1-inch chunks

1 red onion, cut into 1-inch chunks

4 servings of cooked rice

Yields 4 servings.

Measure vinegar, brown sugar, orange juice, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper into a large zip-top bag. Seal and shake to combine. Cut pork chops into 1 1/2 inch cubes and add to the bag, seal and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to one day.

Soak bamboo skewers (if using) in water for 30 minutes or use metal skewers. Remove pork from the marinade, and place the marinade, minus the garlic, in a small saucepan.

Heat the marinade to boiling and boil until slightly thickened and reduced by half, about 5 to 7 minutes. Reserve.

Skewer the pork, along with the apples and onions and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle the grill pan with a little oil to prevent skewers from sticking. Heat grill pan (or broiler) to medium high. With a utensil, carefully place the skewers on the pan and grill for 4 minutes. Turn them a quarter of the way around and grill another 4 minutes. Finish grilling the remaining two sides for 4 minutes each, grilling the skewers for a total of 16 minutes. If using your broiler, broil for about 10 minutes total, carefully flipping once. Do not overcook the pork or it will become tough. Remove hot skewers with a utensil.

Serve over rice and drizzle with the reserved reduced fully cooked marinade.

-DisneyFamily.com

SCAMPI SKEWERS

1 / 2 cup panko or dried coarse baguette breadcrumbs

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 large egg yolk

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 1 / 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 1 / 2 tablespoons dry white wine

1 tablespoon finely chopped basil leaves

1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

3 / 4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails on

Yields 4 appetizer servings or 2 to 3 entree servings.

Preheat oven to 425 F.

In a small bowl, combine the panko, butter, egg, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, wine, basil, parsley and salt.

Place 2 shrimp on a cutting board, nestled tail to body, forming a yin-yang design, and thread onto a skewer. Repeat with two more pairs of shrimp, 6 shrimp per skewer. Trim the skewers with scissors if necessary and if wooden to fit on the serving plates.

Put the shrimp in a baking dish. Cover with the butter mixture, dotting it on top. Bake until the shrimp are pink and just cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes. Good served atop zucchini dishes, which absorb the butter and go well with the lemon flavor.

-"In My Kitchen: 100 Recipes and Discoveries for Passionate Cooks" by Ted Allen with Barry Rice.

Photo courtesy of "In My Kitchen."

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "Cooks' Books" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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