Souvla

Fist-sized pieces of lamb turned slowly over embers for hours, which is a different method from the small skewers it shares a root with.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

• 3 kg lamb shoulder or leg, in 8 cm pieces on the bone where possible
• 4 tablespoons dried oregano
• 3 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons coarse black pepper
• 3 lemons
• 100 ml olive oil
• a long spit and charcoal

Method

1. THE PIECES ARE THE SIZE OF A FIST AND THE FIRE IS LOW, which is the whole difference from the small skewers on this site. Those are 3 cm cubes over a fierce heat for twelve minutes. This is 8 cm pieces over dying embers for two to three hours, turning the whole time, so the outside dries into a crust while the inside comes gently up to temperature. The same word underneath, two unrelated ways of cooking.
2. THE EMBERS ARE WHITE AND THERE IS NO FLAME. Light the charcoal an hour before anything goes near it and wait until it is grey all over. A flame scorches the outside black within minutes while the middle is raw, and dripping fat will cause flare-ups, so the coals are banked to the SIDES rather than directly under the meat.
3. AND IT IS SEASONED WITH SALT AND OREGANO ONLY, no marinade, no oil on the meat before it goes on. Oil drips and flares; a wet marinade steams the surface and stops the crust forming. The lemon and oil come at the end.
4. Lamb cut into pieces about 8 cm, bone left in wherever possible -- it conducts heat into the middle and keeps the meat moist.
5. Rubbed hard with the salt, pepper and half the oregano. Left at room temperature 1 hour.
6. Charcoal lit and allowed to burn down to white embers, then raked into two banks with a gap in the middle.
7. Meat threaded onto the spit, pieces pushed firmly together so they support each other, and balanced -- an unbalanced spit turns in jerks and cooks unevenly.
8. The spit set about 30 cm above the gap, and turned continuously. A motor is worth having; by hand it is a two-hour job for somebody.
9. FIRST HOUR: no basting at all. The surface needs to dry and form a crust before anything wet touches it.
10. After that, brushed every 30 minutes with the oil, the juice of two lemons and the remaining oregano whisked together.
11. 2 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours in total. It is done when the outside is dark and crisp and a skewer into the thickest piece meets no resistance.
12. Rested 20 minutes off the spit, then pulled apart rather than carved, with the last lemon squeezed over.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes