Souvlaki or Shish Kebab
This is the way we do souvlaki or shish kebab - and I mean the sandwich with pita bread you can find on nearly every street corner in Greece, not just the skewered meat. This is the best!
Ingredients:
Meat and Marinade:
1 1/2 lbs pork tenderloins, cut up into 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch cubes (or the meat of your choice)
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (not traditional - but I like the flavour it adds)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes (I use a whole dried one, crumbled)
1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 lemon, juice of
Fixings:
1 (8 count) package greek pita bread
1 medium onions, sliced thin
1 large tomatoes, sliced thin
1 cup tzatziki (you can find my way to make tzatziki in my recipes - or do a recipe search)
1/2 cup chopped parsley
makes: 4 servings - 8 souvlaki
marinate meat:
Cut tenderloin into bite-size chunks and put into a tupperware with remaining ingredients.
Swish everything around to distribute, put in fridge and forget for a day (this long marination is not absolutely necessary- but longer means more flavour. If you haven't the time, just do what you can).
When ready to bbq, skewer meat onto metal or wooden skewers (remember to the wooden skewers in water for atleast 1/2 an hour first) and bbq until the meat is nicely brown all over, and you know you can't possibly wait any longer to eat.
To prepare the fixings:
As you are bbqing the meat, brush as many pita breads as there are souvlaki generously with olive oil and put on the bbq to crisp slightly or alternatively, into a hot frying pan, and cook about 30-45 seconds per side or until starting to brown and give off a yummy,'toasty' smell.
Here is the'technique' part.
Have cut some squares of foil a bit larger than the pita breads.
Put a square in the palm of your hand and lay a pita in the centre sitting in your flat palm.
Take a skewer of meat and place in center of pita.
Squeeze palm shut around meat to get a grip with the pita and pull out skewer, leaving meat inside the bread.
Open up your palm slightly, making the pita gape open and throw in some onion, slices of tomato, a good dollop of tzatziki, some parsley, along with a healthy shake of salt.
Roll sandwich up by squeezing palm again (gently this time as the salad stuff is inside) and enclosing neatly with the foil, giving a twist on the bottom so no yummy juices drip out onto your clothes as you are eating this!
B-man
