Pork Souvlaki

Souvlaki
Originally uploaded by City Girl Lifestyle

Welcome back to What’s Cooking Wednesday – be sure to check out WCW’s home over at Shan’s blog.

My main contribution to today’s post was finding this recipe over on Kalofagas, a great food blog by Peter Minakis, and then sending the link over to my husband with the header, “this might interest you.” We had just been talking about how it had been a long time since we had made any sort of grilled meat other than chicken, and I know he loves souvlaki. The recipe and the great pictures completely caught his eye, as within a few days he had made it.

Usually we cook together, but I was napping when he made the marinade, and then the following day I went to yoga, and he ended up cooking the whole meal before I got home to surprise me. Come to think of it, I did make the salad with the feta but that, combined with finding the recipe, is about all I did. My husband even took the pictures of the meal for the blog.

I am glad he did and I am happy to share it with you because, really, this was an awesome dinner. So I am putting aside the guilt that I did very little to bring you this post (I did write the post, that counts for something, right?). The meat grilled beautifully on our indoor grill (which my husband prefers to my grill pan), but I would venture it would grill just fine on the grill pan too. Oh, and we just skipped the skewers completely.

Pork Souvlaki
From Kalofagas
1 boneless pork butt (shoulder)
1 medium onion, grated
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 heaping tsp. salt
1 heaping tsp. black pepper
1/4 vegetable oil (CGL note: we used Canola as that was what we had on hand)
1 heaping tsp. dried Greek oregano
wooden skewers (soaked overnight)

Trim excess fat from your pork butt and cut into uniform pieces. In a large bowl, add your remaining marinade ingredients along with the pork pieces and toss to mix and coat all the meat. Place in the fridge for at least 5 hours and for best results, overnight. Place your wooden skewers in a shallow baking dish that’s filled with water. Allow the wooden skewers to soak overnight (so they don’t disintegrate when grilling). The next day, a couple of hours before you are going to grill your souvlaki, allow the pork to come to room temperature and then start skewering your meat (it’s easier when your meat’s at room temperature). Pre-heat your gas grill (or prepare your charcoal grill) and when you have a medium-high heat, grill your souvlaki for 3-4 minutes a side and then keep warm until all the souvlaki are cooked. Squeeze fresh lemon juice on your souvlaki with a sprinkle of fine sea salt and dried Greek oregano.