A Yummedy Summer BBQ'd Appetizer

TRADITIONAL RUMAKI
(Bacon, Chicken Liver, and Water Chestnut Kebabs)

Adapted from: BBQ USA by Steven Raichlen

1 lb. chicken livers (about 16 livers)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup cream sherry
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 - 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
3 slices peeled fresh ginger, crushed
2 whole star anise
8 drained peeled canned water chestnuts, cut in half lengthwise
8 slices bacon, cut in half crosswise
About 16 small (6-inch) bamboo skewers

Clean the chicken livers. Combine the soy sauce, sherry, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, and star anise in a bowl and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Add the chicken livers and let them marinate in the refrigerator, covered, for 1 hour.

Remove the chicken livers from the marinade and blot them dry with paper towels. Set the marinade aside. Wrap each chicken liver, along with a water chestnut half, in a piece of bacon, securing it with a skewer.

Strain the marinade into a saucepan over high heat, let it come to a boil, and boil until thick and syrupy, 3 to 5 minutes.

(The BBQ USA recipe deals with heat zones, etc. OMG, like I'm going to set up heat zones. I have two zones, hot and not.)

Grill the rumaki until the bacon is crisp and the livers are cooked (pink in the center), 2 to 4 minutes per side, basting them with the boiled marinade. To test for doneness, squeeze a rumaki between your thumb and forefinger; it should be gently yielding, not soft and squishy. Or, cut into a rumaki with a paring knife. Only the center should be pink. Be ready to move the rumaki should the dripping bacon fat cause flare-ups.


GUDRUN'S SECRET RUMAKI:
(Bacon, Shrimp, and Water Chestnut Kebabs)

Use shrimp instead of chicken livers, and use chili sauce in a bottle (such as Tiger Sauce) instead of that complicated recipe (no marination needed). But the complicated recipe is REALLY, REALLY good.

If you don't have chili sauce, try apricot preserves and hot Chinese mustard (you may have some left over from take-out). :P