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Recipe
Shashlik
Lamb skewers grilled over charcoal, served with raw onion and hot bread.
- Time
- 4 h
- Serves
- 4
The story
Outside almost every choyxona — the teahouse — stands a long, narrow grill, the mangal, with a cook fanning the coals. Shashlik is Uzbekistan's most sociable food: ordered by the skewer, eaten at long tables with bread, onion and green tea.
There are many kinds: plain lamb, lamb with pieces of tail fat between, liver, and qiyma kabob, spiced minced meat pressed onto flat skewers. Early colour photographs taken in Samarkand around 1910 already show kebab grills in the bazaar.
How it tastes
Smoky and juicy, with crisp, melting pieces of fat between the meat. The onion dressed with vinegar is sharp and cool against it, and the bread soaks up the juices.
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 1 kg lamb leg or shoulder, cut into 4 cm cubes
- 200 g lamb tail fat, in small cubes (optional)
- 3 onions: 2 grated, 1 sliced into thin rings
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- A handful of dill or coriander leaves
- Flat bread, to serve
Method
- Mix the meat with the grated onion, cumin, coriander and pepper. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
- Light the charcoal and wait until it is covered with white ash — flames burn the meat, embers cook it.
- Salt the meat, then thread it onto long flat skewers, alternating with pieces of fat, packed close together.
- Grill for 10–15 minutes, turning often. If the fat flares up, sprinkle the coals with a little salted water.
- Toss the sliced onion with the vinegar and herbs.
- Serve the skewers on bread, with the onion on top.
