Shashliks

Shasliks are great to take along to a BBQ. For the meat we like to use a lamb backstrap. They are tender and have plenty of flavour and no fat and as a result don t really need lengthy marinating. You can often buy them pre-marinated (the singing butcher at the South Melbourne Market does some good varieties) which means your preparation is almost done. If you are making your own marinade here a few suggestions:

• Yogurt mixed with a little curry paste and minced garlic
• Red wine, olive oil, herbs and cracked pepper
• Honey, lemon juice, chopped mint and olive oil

Anyway, you already have some of your own favourite marinade mixes. In this case it is more to create a glaze or crust on the meat cubes as they cook as it is infuse flavour through the meat. We prefer to marinate our backstrap whole then at preparation time cut it in half down the middle and cut the two strips into cubes. Place them in a dish and move them around to make sure they have marinade on all sides. An average backstrap should produce something like 12 to 16 cubes. Don t cut them too small or they will shrivel down to tough little lumps. Now for the other ingredients. Because lamb backstrap is not a cheap cut, we prefer to flesh out the protein with mushrooms. Then choose some vegetables for contrasting colours and textures. For instance you might use red and green peppers and then use rosemary stalks as skewers. The rosemary stalks need to be thick enough to act as a firm skewer. Don t bother removing the leaves because they add great flavour and even if they are over an open flame the scorching that occurs perfumes the air and lets people know something is happening.

In this particular case we added red onions, slices of lemon and fresh bay leaves. (The lemon and bay leaves may be consumed or discarded after cooking depending on individual tastes.)

Thread the ingredients onto your skewers (or rosemary stalks) with the bay leaves and lemon adjacent to the lamb cubes and the festive colours alternating and there you have a festive Christmas shaslik. Cook on the BBQ or in a frypan basting with some leftover marinade along the way. For serving you may want to cut a ciabatta down the middle and place it on the grill until it gains some colour. Rub with a garlic clove, sprinkle on some olive oil, add a little salad and your festive shaslik, remove the skewer with a flourish - on second thoughts I know your track record on such things so maybe you had better carefully remove the skewer.

Enjoy

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Related pages

• The White Hat Guide to Lamb & Goat