The veg and meat flavors have to marry to be really good

Really? I’ve seen many recommend skewering everything separately - even by vegetable - due to different cooking times.

If you do feel it makes a difference, then I’m struggling to see how the brief sear after SV would give it enough time work.

My thought is separate or forego SV. My inclination would be the latter.

Now I’ve got the taste of shish kebab in my mind. Haven’t had it in many, many years. Might just be WFD one day soon!

Sous vide veg cooks much hotter than meat, so I'd say no. What meat and veg were you thinking of?

plllog, what were you going to combine with the lamb? I wouldn't bother with SV but then I have absolutely zip experience with it. I've grilled kebabs both ways...combining the meat/poultry and veggies and separating them. Pretty much depends on what veggies I'm using. Something like cherry tomatoes can be another story. The other night we had lamb kebabs with just red onion, so no big deal to combine them...also very tasty when grilled together.

Since you mentioned using lamb, this is a good marinade for Souvlakia.

6 T. red wine vinegar

6 T. red wine

Juice of half lemon

3 T. olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup minced parsley (or mint...or 2 T. each)

1 tsp. dried oregano
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Combine and pour over 2 pounds of lamb (1 1/2" pieces) and 1 large onion (chunks)

We usually do onion, bell pepper, whole mushroom and cherry tomato, though only if the tomatoes seem hearty enough not to fall off. They usually go on big metal skewers on big stone barbecue, but the barbecue is out and I have no confidence doing them in the oven. I do have huge cast iron grill plate, but it's not Le Creuset and way to thick and heavy to want to tote around. I mean seriously heavy. At that point I'd just make roast chicken. :)

Cooking them separately is silly. Why bother skewering at that point? You just have a warm salad with tidy presentation. The juices are all supposed to influence each other. I suppose it's not veg. It's fruit, root and fungus (only the onion is really a vegetable). Come to think of it, all are good raw.

So, it's not the cook time of the veg I'd worry about, so long as the pathogens from it all mixed in the marinade are dead, but if they can't be skewered ahead of time, there's no point in doing it at all. And, really, at that point, I'd probably have to dig out some small metal skewers (I know I have some somewhere) because the pathogens would likely be at home in the bamboo ones, unless they had long enough in the bath, and I don't know how to calculate for thick lengthwise and thin cross wise. I suppose I could space things out some and just squish them together before searing... But this sounds like too much work to bother with.

Thanks, everybody.

plllog, late to the conversation, but you've got me intrigued now. I like to grill the veg with the meats on kabobs because of the mingling of flavors also. Mostly the onion and green pepper. We like our veg's tender crisp as well, and both with at least some char.

I agree, I wouldn't want to sous vide them together, and even were there no concern of pathogens, I'd think the veg would take on the meat juice flavors - not my preference anyway.

Having given it thought, were it me, I'd probably under sous vide the veg's (separately) by a few degrees and by time, then do the same with the meat, but not under in time so I'd still get that tenderness, just lower the desired final temp on sous vide. All using the same marinade if used. At which point I'd (ice bath first) refrigerate or freeze for another time...

On the day of the kabobs, thaw in fridge, and while cold, skewer all together and grill... hoping the lower than desired temps would come up while searing on the grill. I'd test this on DH and myself first, though : )

Thanks, 2Many! At this point you know more about sous than I! And what you describe is way too much work. The whole point for the sous vide is to make it easy and portable. It sounds like you do this very similarly to the way we do, but we want the veg to take on some flavor of the meat, while the meat is taking some flavor from the veg. Perhaps it would be too much sous vide. I might try it on the family, but there's not enough data to be confident about doing it for a party. I'll think of something else to make.

I think you're smart to think of something else in this case. :-)

plllog, I think you've been hanging out on 2Many's sous vide post for too long. :)

2Many, seeing your pictures of what you've been cooking makes me think you're been enjoying yourself mightily with your new toys! MUCH better than living on picnic food while the work is being done. :) It also gives you so much freedom to say, "What can I sous vide today?" whereas I have so many different, terrific ways to cook that I don't bother until I have a need, and then have to research what to do. So you're a good influence on me!

Not a shish-k-bob fan. Cute presentation but nothing has ever cooked properly in my experience. I 'bob' and skewer similar cooking times. SousVide is easy but when complicated I avoid it. For me it is a background dependable method that sits/waiting. I don't want the veg and protein to 'meld'. I want each to be a separate flavor fresh. Interesting idea. Now that I have so much fresh garden harvest I want to experiment with...k-bobs are not on the list.

plllog, Yes! I can't even describe how much fun/enjoyment I've had discovering new methods of cooking, finding and creating new recipes! I absolutely know that trial by fire (having to use the tools available to me without a proper kitchen) has been a godsend. Having to learn so much in a short time has made now - and will continue to make such a huge difference in my cooking and prep when I eventually have a full-fledged kitchen. I've known that sometimes so-called hardships are often how we learn important and useful lessons, but never thought it would translate to cooking : )

sleevendog, I'd agree that attempting to cook sous vide kabobs might be just too much work and a fail, but if I have the time, I'll give it a go! I have only made shrimp and veg (our favorite) and chicken kabobs, which were also quite good. I have visions of mid-rare meat and lovely charred veg on the same skewer... but who knows?

Sleevendog, shishkebob, all marinated together, large pieces of lamb and veg, on big skewers, was something we had for dinner fairly regularly at home. Everything was cooked just fine. I haven't made it for over a decade, however, and for sure never tried it on one of these half made here, half made there adventures, but I do know what I want it to taste like, and how it should be.

2Many, turkey works better than chicken, IMHO.

Doing beef kebabs tonight with top sirloin, onion and bell pepper. Marinade is a basic vinaigrette I make for certain salads...red wine vinegar, garlic, Dijon mustard, S&P and olive oil.

I'm also not a fan of kebobs. Too much work putting them on and taking them off the skewers. :) The exception is a mango chili marinated salmon and sea bass kebob that my local fish store makes with yellow peppers and zucchini. Yum!

But, Sherri, they're so delicious!! Better over real charcoal, of course...

The ones I like best are the ones you get in Greece where it's just the meat.

plllog, Everything is delicious over charcoal!

Love my Big Green Egg.

I'll have to look again for turkey breasts, individual. Haven't been able to find them thus far and my freezer is too stuffed for a while turkey. We only get (pricey) lamb chops here. No other cuts of lamb, which I love!

2Many, your locale doesn't deserve you.

End of the story: The birthday girl really wanted the shishkebob, so I did take my grill plates. I only found one of my little skewers, like it had been taken out to use for another purpose, so I used bamboo. That was fine, since one of the guests is elderly and sometimes has to have help cutting her food. So I made bite size, about a quarter of the size we usually do, and so, no sous vide necessary. It came out really well. I'm the harshest critic of my cooking, but I thought it tasted really good!

plllog, the comment above was so kind of you : ) Sure made my head swell!

I'm glad the shish kebabs were a hit, and yes, I know what you mean, I can be hyper critical of myself at times, and forgiving of my cooking at other times... sounds like they were perfect!

i suggest you watch the episode of good eats Elton brown did on kebabs

Why? I've been making them all my life and already posted that I'd made them and the event was over...

I http://cssvm.staging.wpengine.com/recipes/meat/boti-beef-kebabs/ this today and wondered if it was more along the lines of what you were looking to do.

Islay, I saw a shish kabob with beef and veg in a sous vide on wooden skewers after this post but can't find the darned thing! This is the closest I could find.

OT: Islay, not sure if you followed, but you were so right, the sous vide makes the best pots de creme - made chocolate the other day and it didn't have that grainy or too thick texture : ) And it was incredibly easy. Thanks for the encouragement!

Thank-you both! That's exactly what I was wondering. And it sounds like it worked fine. Islay's link has sear, bath, skewer, sear. 2Many's is just bath on skewers, sear, which is what I first asked about. I daresay the former is "better", but the latter is what would make it worthwhile. I'd never done shishkebab on bamboo before, just Asian kinds of things, but it worked fine, and the bite sized pieces went over well, with no knife-and-fork work needed. I think this is a good way to go if it's not going on the big barbecue. For home, though, I think I have some round skewers that would work on my little round barbecue. Not for a party, of course, but I think I should find those and do some experiments.

I don't have enough experience to discuss the veg so much re sous vide, but a lot of concern in various discussions I've read is about how fast or slow the veg cook. A lot of that has to do with whether you want your meat barely past raw, which is not traditional for shishkebab (which is fine, whatever you like, but I grew up with the traditional way which has been done in my family probably since the first lump of meat has been speared on a skewer), and the idea that the veg is supposed to be cooked thoroughly, which also isn't traditional.

Veg cooked, but not soft or dull in color is just right. I know people are eating lamb at lower temperatures, but I think a lot of that is people who aren't used to lamb who are deciding it should be like beef. "Normal" for lamb used to be medium-well. Whatever the case, I've never had an issue getting it to come out right (though occasionally, on the barbecue, beef shishkebab (literally "meat skewer), though we mean lamb unless something else is specified) has been under and needed more fire, but I think that's a charcoal issue, not a beef issue). I think people fuss too much over perfection. :) Don't make this if you want evenly cooked! It's supposed to be charred at the corners and tender in the middle! I'm only looking for tastes good and the way we like it, not what some arbiter thinks it should be. :)