Marinated Turkey Kabobs - Shish Hindi

Flavorful and tender, these Marinated Turkey Kabobs aka Shish Hindi are a delightful main course. Stuff them in pita bread or eat them plain! So good!

For years I’ve been making shish tawook, the chicken version of this dish. It’s truly one of our favorite meals especially when served with homemade hummus and tabouli for a full-on Middle Eastern dining experience. 

While researching turkey (the fowl) for this recipe, I learned that in many languages it is called some version of “Indian bird,” for instance, in Armenian, it is called hndkahav or hntkahav, which translates to “Indian chicken.” In Hebrew, the turkey is called tarnegol hodu, literally meaning "rooster of India." In both Polish and Ukrainian, turkey is called indyk, a reference to India. Similarly it is indik in Yiddish, also referring to India. And there are more! Source: Bare Bones Translations. 

If you are saying to yourself, I had no idea that turkeys originated in India! Well, that's because they didn't. Turns out that the story is more convoluted than the name in other languages would have you believe and, frankly, the whole thing started making my head hurt. Suffice to say that the turkey is a native north American bird but it's been domesticated in many locales and one of those is India. 

At some point in my google fest, I found a site that called turkey skewers (skewers = shish) shish hindi and I can only imagine that what they were trying to indicate was Indian chicken aka turkey. I have since lost that link but it tickled me so I kept the name. 

Marinated Turkey Kabobs - Shish Hindi

I haven’t included the recipes for the garlic mayo or salad since this post is primarily about the turkey but making garlic mayo is simple. Add 1 clove of minced garlic to about 1/4 cup or 60ml of your favorite mayonnaise. For the salad, I include deseeded cucumber, finely sliced onion, sliced black olives and small tomatoes, halved. Dress the salad simply with a drizzle of olive oil, a generous squeeze of lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Ingredients

1/3 cup or 80ml plain yogurt

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

3 tablespoons or 45ml fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 lb or 450g turkey breast fillet 

8-10 wooden skewers, soaked in water for an hour. 

Optional to serve:

Pita bread

Garlic mayonnaise - see note above

Mixed salad- see note above

Method

Put all the ingredients except the turkey into a nonreactive bowl and mix well.  

Clean the extra fat and sinews off of the turkey breast, if any, and cut it into bite-sized pieces. 

Pop them in the bowl with the marinade and stir until the turkey is well-coated.  Let this marinate for as long as you have but at least one hour. 

When you are ready to cook the shish hindi, push the turkey pieces on to your soaked wooden skewers.

Heat a well-seasoned iron skillet till very hot.  Put the turkey on and cook for several minutes. Turn the skewers over when they are well-browned. 

Cook for a few more minutes until both sides are browned and the turkey is cooked through.   

You can eat the turkey kabobs as is with side dishes but we like to stuff them into a folded pita bread with garlic mayo and salad. A delicious, tasty meal!

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes in celebration of National Something on a Stick Day, which happens to be tomorrow, 28 March! Many thanks to our host, Mayuri of Mayuri’s Jikoni.

• Amy’s Cooking Adventures: Bacon Mini Cheese Balls on a Stick
• A Day in the Life on the Farm Homemade Corndogs
• Food Lust People Love: Marinated Turkey Kabobs - Shish Hindi
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Mini Caprese Salad Skewers
• Sneha’s Recipe: Paneer Lollipops
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Vegetable Seekh Kababs

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin these Marinated Turkey Kabobs!

 .

Grilled Red Snapper with Cilantro and Onion Stuffing or حمراء مشوية مع حشوة

Grilled red snapper is a deliciously easy dish, cooked over a charcoal fire. The snapper stays moist of you grill with the scales on - and flavor is added - when you fill it with cilantro and onion stuffing, a traditional recipe from my current home, the United Arab Emirates.

I grew up with a father that fished and hunted so I am not unfamiliar with guts and eyeballs on foodstuff. But honestly, the first time I remember seeing a whole fish on a plate was probably when I was 10 or 11 years old, visiting Daddy in Venezuela or Peru and my stepmother not only ordered a whole fish but she popped out the eyeball and ate it with relish saying it was a delicacy.  Needless to say, as a child, I was repulsed. It didn’t stop me from enjoying the rest of the fish though!

Then when we lived in Abu Dhabi back in late Eighties and I was the editor at a small publishing house, my boss was an Omani gentleman who taught me that the sweetest part of the fish was the cheek, which is found behind the eye in a little pocket.  I always go for that little piece first because he was so right. (Thanks, Saleh!) If you’ve never cooked a whole fish, I’d like to encourage you to try it.  There is no way a fish filet can be as tasty as a whole fish cooked on the bones.  If the eyes really offend you, get your fish guy to cut off the head, but leave the rest of the fish intact.

Our theme is grilling this week but I wanted especially to make something from the United Arab Emirates, since this is home right now.  This recipe comes to me from a fellow Texan who married an Emirati and moved to the UAE.  Her blog is filled with delicious local fare, with complete explanations and photos, and is a treasure trove of ideas for anyone interested in Emirati cooking.  MaryAnn is a sweetheart and I am grateful to her for her advice and expertise.  You can find her blog at Emiratican Kitchen. She hasn't updated in a while because she is a beautiful seamstress and that has become her focus. but the recipes are all still there. If you leave her a comment, please tell her Stacy sent you.

In Arabic, red snapper is hamra, grilled is meshwiya and stuffing is hashwa, so this is hashwa meshwiyah m’a hashwa or as MaryAnn put it more simply, grilled hamra with hashwa.  Whatever you call it, it is delicious!  For her recipe, I was supposed to use a large red snapper of one kilo or about 2.2 pounds, but sometimes those are hard to come by.  I substituted two smaller snappers so the cooking time was much shorter.  And since we were just two eating that night, I ended up freezing the second one. It made a beautiful dinner another night.

Grilled Red Snapper with Cilantro and Onion Stuffing

Grilling a whole fish with scales on keeps it from sticking to the hot grill.  Stuffing it with onions, cilantro and spices infuses the whole fish with lovely flavors and keeps it from drying out on the grill.

Ingredients
Hamra (Red Snapper) 2 lbs plus or 1 kg - or larger (Whole – do not scale or trim fins)

For the stuffing:
1 medium-sized onion
1 medium-sized green bell pepper
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 thumb-sized knob fresh ginger
1 bunch cilantro or fresh coriander
1/4 cup or 60ml extra virgin olive oil
1 heaped teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cumin powder

Method
Gut the fish from the belly to leave a space for the stuffing.  (I let the fish guy at my local market do this job for me.)  Make sure to leave the scales on so the fish won’t stick to the grill.

Chop your onion and bell pepper finely.  Peel and mince your garlic and ginger.  Wash your cilantro thoroughly and trim off the end hard woody ends of the stems.  Chop the stems of the cilantro very finely and then chop the leaves roughly.

In a medium-sized bowl, thoroughly mix the onion, bell pepper, cilantro, garlic and ginger with all of the spices and the olive oil.

Fill the cavity in the fish with the stuffing.

Using a large needle and some kitchen string (I used poultry string, normally used for trussing a chicken for roasting) sew sides of the fish belly back together.  (I could not find my large needles, so I used an ice pick to poke the holes.  Then I put the stuffing in and tied the knots.)

Tie knots as you go to make sure the sewing is secure.

Meanwhile, light your fire in the barbecue pit.  When the coals are light grey all around the edges, they are ready.

Place the fish on the grill and put the cover on the pit with a little opening to make sure there is enough air getting in so you don’t smother the coals.

Cook for about 10-12 minutes on each side, ideally turning only once so your fish doesn’t fall apart.   If you are fortunate to find a larger fish, MaryAnn says to cook it for 30 minutes on each side.

Put a knife in at the thickest part and look at the bones to make sure the fish is cooked all the way down.  When the fish meat is completely white and opaque, the fish is done.

To serve, peel the charred skin and scales off with a knife and lift the meat off the bones.

Lift the meat off the bones with a knife or spatula. 

Lift the bones off to get to the other side. 

Traditionally, MaryAnn says this is served with white rice and fresh greens.  I didn’t take a photo of it, but we topped the fish with a little of the stuffing and it was delicious.

Enjoy!

 Easy BBQ Recipes

Best Burgers and Sandwiches

• Barbecue Rib Burgers with Low Carb Sauce by My Life Cookbook
• Caribbean Jerk Chicken Burgers by Simple and Savory
• Guava-Ale BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich by Gourmet Everyday
• Turkapple Burgers with Yumback Sauce by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures

Grill Master Mains

• Grilled Red Snapper with Cilantro and Onion Stuffing by Food Lust People Love
• Honey Glazed Chicken Kabobs by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Slow Cooker Pulled Pork with Homemade Coleslaw by A Mind Full Mom
• Spicy Grilled Leg of Lamb by Sunday Supper Movement

Mop Worthy Sauces

• Blueberry Sriracha Barbecue Sauce by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
• Homemade “End of Season” Ketchup by What Smells So Good?

Searing Starters and Sides

• Campfire Corn and Tomatoes by Cricket’s Confections
• Grilled Lime Beer Ritas with Smoky Lime Salt by Our Good Life
• Honey Chipotle BBQ Wings by Soulfully Made
• Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce by Asian In America

Sizzling Sweets

• All-American Pie Shooter Trio by The Crumby Cupcake
• Flourless Fudge Brownies by Pies and Plots
• Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone by Caroline’s Cooking
• Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Mini No Bake Coconut Cheescakes by Jonesin’ For Taste