A great souvlaki recipe for the summer grilling season!

[giant_robot]

Hi all! I haven't posted in this forum for a while, but just wanted to post one of my recent successes.

Souvlaki – Greek barbecued skewered lamb

2 lbs lean lamb, cut into 2 inch cubes
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
8 bamboo skewers, soaked for 30 minutes

To Serve:
Tzatziki – see recipe: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art2460.asp
8 pita bread
3 Tbs olive oil
2 tomatoes, halved and sliced fine
1 onion, halved and sliced fine
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced fine
8 pita sized squares of waxed paper


Mix the wine, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper in
a small bowl. Place lamb in a large non-reactive bowl and pour the wine
mixture over. Mix well until the lamb is well coated. Cover and leave in
the refrigerator for 3 hours or, preferably, overnight.

Preheat the barbecue and lightly oil. Thread the lamb on to the skewers,
reserving the marinade. Grill for about 10 minutes, basting with the
remaining marinade and turning once.

Brush the pita with the remaining olive oil and place on the grill until
warm and soft, about 1 minute. When the pita is ready, place it on a
square of wax paper, put the lamb on it, add the remaining ingredients and
roll in to a cone shape.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art29731.asp

I made this using boneless chicken thighs. My girlfriend, who is a big souvlaki fan and has worked in several greek restaurants, raved about it. She even said that although she prefers beef souvlaki, she'd order the chicken if the restaraunts did it like I do!

Some notes:

Use two skewers per kabob. It makes the kabobs easier to turn and cook evenly.

Don't crowd the pieces of meat on the skewers. Touching is fine, but if they're jammed up against each other, they won't cook through.

I pretty much followed the serving suggestion above, using store-bought tsatziki from Wegman's mediterranian bar, tomatoes and onions. I found that microwaving the greek pocketless pita bread made it pliable and more like what you'd get in a restaurant.

The only critisism my girlfriend had was that I served it sandwich-style, while she prefers it over a salad. Next time we're going to have it served on a bed romaine and field greens with feta cheese, tomato, and kalamata olives. Also, the plan for next time is to make the kabobs ahead of time, then head out to the country with my portable gas grill for a picnic.

Enjoy!

[joneschick]

1. your souvlaki

has seriously got my mouth watering. I sure wish this laptop was hooked up to a printer. oh yeah, I could bookmark it. duh