The Oracle super-chefs Jon Proctor and Mari Ju bring you the best in summer barbeque cuisine.

Lemon-Ginger Ice in Lemon Cups

Ingredients:

• 8 lemons the bigger the better
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 cups water
• 2 inch piece ginger minced
• 1 lemon zest
• Mint leaves or raspberries for garnish

To start, combine the water, sugar and ginger in a sauce pan and bring it to a simmer. Cook the syrup for a couple minutes until the ginger becomes fragrant, then turn it off and let it seep until cool. While cooking, be careful not to boil the mixture too rigorously because the syrup could darken or burn.

While the syrup is cooling, cut the lemons a third from the top so that the larger piece has the stem at the bottom. Juice all the lemons, taking care not to eat into the pith which would make the juice bitter as well as ruin the cups. Once they are juiced, take the rest of the pulp out of the top and bottom and cut a little slice off the bottom of the large piece so that it can stand up on its own.

Take a cup of the lemon juice and add it to a blender with the ginger syrup. Now add ice and blend. Keep adding ice until the entire mixture has a slushy-like consistency and then plop the ice into the freezer with the lemon cups.

As the cups and ice freeze, stir the ice every 45 minutes to break apart the large blocks of ice that could form. After 1 to 3 hours in the freezer, dish the ice into the cups, garnish with some mint, cap the cups, and enjoy!

Island Teriyaki Beef Kabobs

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds sirloin steak, cut into thin slices
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 pineapple, peeled and sliced lengthwise
• 1 tbs. thinly sliced mint leaves (for garnish)

Combine the soy sauce, garlic, sugar and water and marinate the meat in the mixture in a plastic bag overnight in the refrigerator. Preheat the grill to high heat. Place the meat on skewers. Cook the kabobs over hot coals until done to your liking, about 4 to 5 minutes for medium rare. Place the pineapple slices on grill. Cook them on both sides until there are grill marks and the natural sugars have helped them brown, about 2 minutes per side.

Place the beef skewers on top of the grilled pineapple slices and garnish with mint.

Zesty Grilled Steak

Ingredients:

• The juice of half a lemon
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1/8 cup soy sauce
• 1 tbs. honey
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 fresh and juicy steaks
• And a little wasabi to taste

Combine all the ingredients above and let the mixture marinate for 10 to 20 minutes. Next, toss it on the grill. The meat is done when the inside is no longer red, but leaving it a little pink will keep the meat from getting tough. If you were in a rush and cut the marinating time, spoon the sauce over the meat while cooking. Once it’s cooked, take it off the grill, let it rest for 7 minutes, then cut and enjoy!

Fresh Seasonal Grilled Eggplant

Ingredients:

• One large or two medium-sized eggplants
• 1 tsp. Salt (more or less to taste)
• 1/2 tsp pepper (more or less to taste)
• 3 tbs. Olive oil

Slice the eggplant into 3/8 inch slabs and put them into a bowel with the oil, salt and pepper. Toss all the ingredients together and then throw the eggplant slices onto a hot grill. After a couple minutes flip the slabs over so the other side can brown. Take the slices off when they are soft to the touch and look delicious and juicy.

Bruschetta

Ingredients:

• 10 1/2 inch-thick slices Italian-style bread
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 large plum tomatoes, diced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tbs. grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Using a pastry brush, gently add a small layer of oil to the slices of bread and lightly toast. Combine the garlic, cheese and tomatoes in a bowl. Add approximately 2 tablespoons of the tomato mixture to each slice of bread. Place the bread in the oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes until desired crispness is reached.