Skewered!

Just got a cool little mini-magazine in the mail from Kikkoman, the soy sauce people, talking about the essentials of Asian grilling – very attractive little promotional package, indeed. The intro letter says that “K” will be published twice a year.

This issue is filled with pretty pictures of grilled food and recipes featuring, of course Kikkoman’s products (which by the way, I have a few in my pantry, and I’ll probably pick up their newest one, a line of Teriyaki Takumi Collection Sauces – the Triple Ginger one sounds delicious).

One little sidebar caught my eye, called “skewer savvy” and this being the height of grilling season, I thought I’d pass on to you a couple of their tips:

*Soak bamboo skewers in soy sauce flavored water for at least 30 minutes. I would add about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce per cup of water. (Although, didn’t I read in Gourmet Magazine that you don’t have to soak skewers?) Soaking skewers in flavored water makes much more sense than just plain water, if you decide to soak.

*Use two skewers, parallel to each other for fish and large sea scallops, to keep them from falling apart on the grill.

*Beyond metal and bamboo: The outer stalks of fresh lemongrass stalks make great skewers (still soak like bamboo). Fresh sugarcane skewers look great, too, but need some trimming to become thin enough to skewer foods. They impart a little sweetness to the food. Woody rosemary stems make great skewers, too.