Wall Street Greek: Souvlaki Recipe

Summer barbecue season means souvlaki for our family

Greek Cooking Columnist, Pinelopi, offers her favorite Greek family recipes as part of Wall Street Greek's weekend content. Please feel free to share your family's favorite Greek recipe (or near Greek) by submitting them (with a photo and brief description or bio of yourself) to this email address: "recipes @ WallStreetGreek .com". We will very likely publish your recipe and photo. Now please enjoy Pinelopi's lamb souvlaki recipe, which you may know better as shish-kebab.

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Greek cooking food recipes souvlaki shish kebab

The traditional start to the American barbecue season is Memorial Day, though I am sure most Americans fire up the grill much earlier than that. Greek-American tradition has extended Greek families the size of some small nations cooking out as early as Easter, and the object of our desire is lamb. Tomorrow, June 21st, marks the first day of summer, so by now nearly all of us are cooking out. Independence Day is just around the corner, so another big barbecue party is queueing up for our home. I initially authored this article for Memorial Day, and I describe that holiday's scene in our home in the paragraphs that follow. My souvlaki recipe can be found below.

After visiting our loved ones at the cemetery with the offering of prayers and flowers, our family prepares to celebrate the holiday with a good old fashioned barbecue. Our flag is already raised, and whether it is still or waving with the passing of a gentle breeze, it is always a stirring feeling to see. Dad has the watermelons lined up on the kitchen floor, and has given each one a thump to decide the first to be cut and placed to chill. Dad takes Odi (short for Odysseus), our brittany spaniel, out for his morning run. He's been bathed the day before. Odi seems to sense good things are coming today, and becomes his master's shadow, not wanting to miss a thing.

As a puppy, we had no inkling that Odi would grow to become like his namesake. He escapes by climbing over the fence or by sneaking under it to seek his adventures. He runs by the house once or twice, just to see what's happening there, but he never comes in for at least three hours. We cannot know what he has done, where he has been or what he has seen, but he returns spent.

The vegetable garden has been planted since before Mother's Day, and is growing nicely. Our three fig trees have already set tiny figs. Two are the mission figs and one produces white figs. The pear tree is in blossom, as well as the dwarf Meyers Lemon Tree, though it has some lemons growing as well. Our grape vine has a few tiny white grapes showing, and we have already cut some leaves for stuffing (see our future article on stuffed grape leaves).

After a morning coffee, we begin to prepare the food for the grill.

We are making Souvlaki of leg of lamb, also known as shish-kebab!

Souvlaki Recipe - Lamb Shish Kebab

Making souvlakia is a family affair. Many hands get the job done quickly, and the work tends to bring out memories and stories of the past and sometimes present. Perhaps it's because it provides time without worries or stress, since we are all concentrating on the job at hand. For instance, how many of each product did we place on each skewer? Such a simple task can be very relaxing, and may well be the factor that encourages the story telling, which most times creates joy and much laughter.

Cooking brings families together before we even gather around the table. If you would care to hear a suggestion, make a date to cook with someone soon – and then "Kali orexi!" or bon appétit. This is the fruit of your labor.

Ingredients:
(Feeds a large family plus some, and should be enough for 25 to 30 skewers)

2.5 pounds of leg of lamb
4-5 firm plum tomatoes, or an adequate amount of cherry or grape tomatoes
4-5 green peppers
1-2 large onions (Dad likes red onions)
1.5 pounds of mushrooms (button mushrooms)
Marinade for the meat:
½ cup of pure olive oil (Dad leaves the oil out)
1 quart of red wine of your tasting (I like Mavrodafne)
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
2 table Spoons Oregano
2 table spoons of salt (or to taste)
1 teaspoon of pepper
Stir it all up and marinade meat for 1 hour or overnight if you have time

Let's Get to Cooking the Lamb Souvlakia!

Place wooden skewers in a pan of water for a half hour so the wood does not burn
Cut the lamb into cubes the size of a walnut and place in marinade if not already done
Cut the vegetables the same size as the meat
If the mushrooms are small, leave them whole; if not, cut them in half
Before putting the souvlakia together add the vegetables to the maranade and stir gently
Start putting the souvlakia together (start and finish each skewer with meat to keep the souvlaki together):
* 1 piece of meat
* 1 tomato
* 1 meat
* 1 pepper
* 1 meat
* 2 slices of onion
* 1 meat
* 1 mushroom
* 1 meat
Cook on the grill, turning occasionally until the meat is cooked through.

Souvlaki Serving Options:

With a side order of rice pilaf and a couple tablespoons of Greek yogurt on top or tsatsiki sauce beside (also tzatziki)
You can heat pitas and place the souvlaki within it, and add tsatsiki sauce

Kali Orexi!

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Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.