Meat or fish cooked over smoldering coals is one of the oldest culinary ideas of any human tribes and peoples inhabiting the Earth.
On holidays and weekends, many go to the country, fishing, picnics for nature, where they cook kebabs with pleasure. Shashlik, as is known, is a dish prepared over smoldering charcoal from any products cut into pieces and strung on a skewer (skewer), and special metal or disposable wooden skewers, even made from improvised tools (tree branches), can be used. Usually the main ingredient of the shish kebab is pre-marinated meat of various animals or birds, sometimes + slices of vegetables and / or fruits.
Shish kebab can be cooked not only from meat, but also from fish of different types. Fans of dishes "with a smoke" fish shish kebabs definitely like, in addition, they are faster than meat prepared and easier to digest by the human body.
Although you can do without it: before heat treatment, meat or fish for shish kebab is pre-marinated either for softening or for giving special shades of taste.
Culinary traditions of different peoples know a great variety of different marinades for shish kebabs (at least from fish, even from meat). Usually they are made on the basis of table wine, beer, fruit vinegars, fermented milk products, fruit juices with garlic, onions, dry spices and fragrant herbs. The preparation of such marinades is both traditional and creative. There is a real space for a culinary fantasy.
How best to marinate fish for shish kebab?
The main point in the preparation of marinade is the question of what effect we want to achieve: change to some degree of unrecognizability or just slightly shade the taste of the main marinated ingredient (that is, fish). In many respects it depends on the type of fish used. It should be noted that, regardless of the size of the pieces, it is not worth pickling fish for shish kebab as long as meat (in any case, marinating fish should not last more than 30-40 minutes).
In general, a marinade for shish kebab from fish (especially if it is a valuable fish and it is tasty in itself) can be the easiest, it can simply be sprinkled with juice, for example, of a lemon just before cooking. This is the best way to proceed if you cook shish kebab from red fish.
The use of the term "red fish" is ambiguous in the understanding of modern Russian speakers. Historically, this phrase meant sturgeon fish, but in modern everyday language, red salmon is sometimes referred to as salmon species because of the characteristic color of their flesh. In any case, both salmon and sturgeon are tasty in themselves, and therefore do not need marinating in general, or this process should be extremely simple and short-lived, so as not to distort the taste of fish.
Sturgeon fish should be sprinkled with citrus juice (lemon, lime, grapefruit) or kiwi. You can also act when preparing salmon fish, or you can marinate it in light white or pink wine (of course, unglazed). You can give additional light taste tones by adding small amounts of hot red pepper, garlic, dry spices and fragrant herbs. Although the greens are better served by ready-made fish separately.
If you cook shish kebab from fatty fish (catfish, halibut, some other species) or you want to significantly change its taste, you can make a marinade in Indian style (dairy products + curry; chutney) or in the Far East (soy sauce + fruit vinegar and / or juice , dry spices).
The time of cooking shish kebab from the fish on the grill is 8-15 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces, the type of fish and the temperature. Shish kebab (in a broad sense) of medium-sized fish is better to cook on the grill, not cutting it into pieces. Preliminarily grate grease or oil.
It is quite good to prepare a delicious shish kebab from fish and in the oven, using a grate or short wooden skewers (they should be wet) and a small tray.
It is good to serve fish kebabs with vegetables, fruits, rice , potatoes, light wines, gin, vodka (including rice), aquavit, beer.