Marinated Grilled Shrimp

I've been waiting to try my kabob baskets since we got our grill. No skewers involved. Sure, sometimes you want skewers for the sake of presentation. But when you just want to grill shrimp or veggies or chunks of tofu or potatoes and you don't want to mess with soaking and loading skewers, these baskets are great. It's the same concept as a fish basket, only each one is long and narrow. No sticking or trying to flip over skewers while the items simply spin around the skewers. The baskets are non-stick and they were easy to clean with hot soapy water and a kitchen sponge.

I used pretty big shrimp that I marinated first and it turned out great with a slight bit of improvisation.

For the marinade:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup unsweetened grated coconut
3 large cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
3 shakes toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp mirin
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp minced shallot
juice of 2 limes
1 tsp brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl large enough to hold all of the shrimp. I marinated the shrimp for only about an hour before cooking. I don't want the lime juice to "cook" the shrimp before I can get it on the grill.

I then lined the kabob baskets with six shrimp. These go right onto the grill except for the handle - leave that off the grill. Now, you can certainly leave the grill open and cook the shrimp but I didn't want to loose all of that heat. But closing the lid onto the kabob basket only turned the edge of the grill into a fulcrum for a shrimp kabob see-saw, leaving the shrimp hovering somewhere inside the grill. So I propped up the lid only about an inch with my tongs (I wasn't using them any longer). I suppose you could also use a flat rock or an empty tuna can, etc. As long as you remember to wear an oven mitt before handling whatever you are using to prop the lid.I cooked the shrimp, turning once then back again, until they had just turned pink all over. They keep cooking after you remove them from the heat anyway. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your shrimp and the heat of your grill. You can also see big slices of eggplant on the grill. Any excuse to grill eggplant. Any at all...

So what are you all grilling?