Souvlaki

Cubes of pork on skewers with a marinade that has no acid in it until the end, so the meat does not go chalky before it reaches the fire.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 800 g pork shoulder, in 3 cm cubes
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 lemons, for the end
• 8 wooden skewers, soaked 30 minutes

Method

1. THE LEMON GOES ON AFTER THE FIRE, NOT BEFORE IT. Acid left on raw pork for hours denatures the surface and the meat cooks chalky and tight, with a grey band under the crust. The marinade here is oil, oregano and garlic only, and the lemon is squeezed over the moment the skewers come off. This is the single most common way souvlaki goes wrong and almost every written recipe gets it backwards.
2. SHOULDER, NOT LOIN, and the fat is the point. Loin has almost none and goes dry in the two minutes between done and overdone; shoulder has seams of fat running through it that keep it forgiving.
3. Pork cut into even 3 cm cubes. Even matters more than small -- mixed sizes means some are raw when others are leather.
4. Tossed with the oil, oregano, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper. Covered and left in the fridge 4 hours, or overnight.
5. Out of the fridge 40 minutes before cooking. Cold meat straight onto high heat chars outside and stays cold in the middle.
6. Threaded onto the soaked skewers, 4 or 5 cubes each, PUSHED TOGETHER BUT NOT CRUSHED. Packed tight they steam against each other; spread out they dry.
7. A grill or barbecue as hot as it will go. The skewers on, and left 3 minutes without touching them so a crust forms and they release on their own.
8. Turned every 2 minutes after that, 10 to 12 minutes in all. The fat should be crisp at the edges and the cubes still give slightly when pressed.
9. ONTO A PLATE AND LEMON SQUEEZED OVER AT ONCE, generously, while they are still hissing. The juice hits the hot fat and steams into the meat.
10. Rested 3 minutes and eaten in the fingers, or wrapped in warm pita with tzatziki as on its own page.

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