Cooked Shashlik
Shashlik is perfect for a barbecue. Delicious lamb cubes with sweet peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon.
"Shashlik" can be translated as "able to be skewered". It originated in Turkey and Russia and is indistiguishable frpm Shish Kebab. There is no set recipe for Shashlik but it generally consists of marinated lamb and vegetable cubes on a skewer which is then barbecued.
It is not normally served in restaurants because the barbecuing process adds much to the flavour of this dish. It is far more commonly served as outdoor street food where barbecues and open grills are best suited.
680g / 1½lbs Leg of lamb (off the bone)
12 Medium mushrooms
8 Cherry tomatoes
4 rashers Streaky bacon
1 Green sweet / bell pepper
MARINADE
1 Medium onion
5 Tablespoons olive oil
5 Tablespoons lemon juice
¾ teaspoon dried rosemary
¾ teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
PREPARATION TIME: 4 hours (includes marinating)Finely chop the onions.
Cut the lamb into 2.5cm / 1in cubes.
Cut each bacon rasher in half (width way).
Cut the pepper in half, remove the seeds and pith. Then cut into 2.5cm / 1in cubes.
Put all the marinade ingredients into a glass or plastic bowl and add the lamb cubes. Mix the ingredients well to ensure the lamb cubes are fully covered with the marinade.
Cover the bowl with cling film and place it in the fridge for four hours or longer if you want to prepare it earlier. Start the barbecue half an hour or so before cooking.
The choice of red or green peppers is yours but the red tomatoes and green peppers looks colourful.
We tried this recipe on a barbecue and cooked it for the generally recommended 10 to 15 minutes. While this cooking time works well when cooking shashliks under the grill, we found it did not work on the barbecue. The lamb tended to burn on the outside but leaves the inside of the lamb almost raw. If that's how like your lamb then fine but we prefer the lamb to be cooked more evenly.
To do this we added all the ingredients to the griddle on the barbecue (use an oven tin if you don't have a griddle) and let them cook for four minutes at the start. It's then easier than it sounds to add the meat and vegetable chunks onto the skewers. See the step by step instructions and pictures below.
Our choice of lamb is definitely leg of lamb, it's tender and not too fatty. We suggest marinating the lamb for four hours but it's fine to leave it overnight.
Remove the lamb marinade from the fridge and separate the lamb chunks from the marinade. Keep the lamb marinade for later.
Add the lamb, mushrooms, tomatoes, sweet pepper and bacon to the griddle section of your pre-heated barbecue (or in an oven tin if you have no griddle) and generously spoon over half of the marinade. Cook, turning a few times for four minutes.
STEP 2Load the ingredients onto four skewers and place on the barbecue. Cook for around 10 minutes turning frequently. While the shashliks are cooking, brush them a few times with the remaining marinade.
Serve the shashliks with chunky bread and lots of salad.
Cooked Shashlik