This week is a little recipe crazy I will admit. You had my starter (Loaded potato skins – read here) which I hope you all enjoyed and perhaps even gave them a go yourself, and now for a new main recipe.
Alex and I actually made this dish together – Yes I let him set foot in the kitchen and actually do something, without getting all control freak like myself, well almost…how proud?
And here’s our creation…how mouth-watering does this look?
Tabasco beef and pork skewers, with pineapple, drizzled with brie.
The brie being drizzled over was Alex’s idea and made a fab addition – It also looked pretty cool. I had to give him credit for this idea!
We used two different tabasco sauces for this dish – The Habanero Tabasco Sauce and the Chipotle Tabasco Sauce – and split the meat so that half were made with each. All were absolutely delicious and the tabasco also worked to help combine the meat…
We served ours with herby potatoes (Alex doesn’t do vegetables, yes tell me about it:P), but they would also go really well with all sorts of veg served on the side, or you could even pop peppers on the skewers!
So here’s how to make our Brie drizzled duo-meat skewers.
Ingredients (to serve 2 – might make a little excess):
- Minced Beef – 250g
- Minced Pork – 250g
- A tin of pineapple slices/rings
- Approx 80g of Brie
- Spices (if you fancy, you don’t need to add these!)
- Wooden Skewers
Here’s what you need to do…
Take one of the meats from the packet and place in a mixing bowl. Add your spices if using and a good shake of tabasco – we added cumin, coriander and paprika to our pork along with the Habanero Tabasco sauce, and just some mixed herbs along with the Chipotle Tabasco Sauce with the beef.
Combine well using your hands, kneading the meat until the herbs and tabasco look spread evenly. Then using your palms or a board start making the meat mixture into squashed balls (flat top and bottom), these will shrink slightly but will form your meat balls for the skewers. You can place these on a plate until you have formed all of your meat balls.
Now take the other meat and do the same with this, combining with the Tabasco sauce and spices, mixing well and forming balls.
Line a baking tray or dish with foil ready for the meat to go in the oven. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees/gas mark 6. This is just to be prepared :)
Next comes browning the meat. Take a frying pan and coat with a little spray oil. Start adding your meatballs and cook on a moderate heat, turning occasionally until brown on the outside. If your pan isn’t big enough you can start placing the browned meat in the lined dish to the side to make space for browning the rest of the meat.
Once you have all the meatballs browned, these are now ready for the oven. Pop them in your oven for 20 minutes or so – Do slice into one (the largest) carefully to check it’s done. Maybe don’t cut it in half or you might be disappointed when this spoils your skewers!
Whilst your meat is cooking slice your pineapple into reasonable sized pieces (we used quarter rings or sixth of rings) and grill if you prefer.
This next bit is slightly tricky…It was good I had Alex to help but I think one person could do it if they had good multi-tasking skills :)
Start heating/melting the brie – we heated ours under the grill in a foil lined pan. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t over cook, going brown as you won’t then be able to drizzle this over the skewers..
Our cheese ready to Brie melted – haha sorry just had to
Remove the meat balls from the oven and start threading onto your skewers. It’s entirely up to you as to the order and how much pineapple you like.
Once you skewers are loaded (hopefully still warm, but they could be popped under the grill to re-warm), remove the brie from the heat. Place the skewers on your plates and taking two spoons start drizzling brie over the entire skewer.
Add your side dish and the masterpiece is ready to be served.
This was very tasty, the meat is tender due to being browned and cooked slower in the oven, and mixed with the brie and pineapple it makes a delicious combination. The Habanero Tabasco Sauce definitely adds a little heat to the meat, and both sauces add a fantastic flavour (Definitely can’t use the word bland when talking about our recipe!).
If I was just making for myself I would definitely add more vegetables – I think a green/orange pepper would have gone wonderfully! Or even some roasted butternut squash…yummmm…definitely doing this next time!
The only downside is that you do have to be a tad speedy when it comes to putting the meat and pineapple on the skewers as not to go cold, but the grill helped us out nicely :)
What do you think?
Chloe xx
*This is part of the #FunWithFlavour Campaign – I was contacted by Tabasco to get involved and become a #FunWithFlavour ambassador which did involved being sent a small gift.
