Summer is ahead, which means that the barbecue season can be considered officially open. It would seem that almost everyone knows how to cook meat on the grill. But how to make this dish tasty and juicy? And there are secrets here.
Meat selection
Of course, the ideal meat for barbecue is lamb. But not everyone likes the specific smell of this meat, so pork is often used. When choosing meat, you need to pay attention to its appearance. Pork should be fresh, soft, old, not fresh meat will not make an ideal shish kebab.
Pork should be chosen not too lean, but not very fatty. Pork neck is ideal for barbecue, and a ham, shoulder blade are also used. The loin will not work.
In addition to pork, shashlik is prepared from veal, turkey, chicken and even fish.
How to cut meat
Properly chopped meat is a very important moment when preparing a kebab. Size matters here. Huge pieces are hard to fry, while small pieces will burn and dry. Accordingly, we need medium, and most importantly, approximately the same pieces.
The meat must be cut across the grain. And, of course, there should be a lot of it, let it be better to stay.
How to make a marinade
In the Caucasus, the homeland of barbecue, barbecue is often marinated with salt, pepper and onions. Plus its own meat juice. However, everyone can invent their own marinade recipe.
Ideally, the meat is marinated for 10-12 hours, or at least 5-6.
There is an opinion that the meat should be salted 5 minutes before cooking, but this does not apply to kebabs. Salting ready-made kebab is useless.
How to fry
Kebab on skewers looks very nice, but skewers take up a lot of space on the table and it is not very convenient to eat. Therefore, the grill grate is quite a useful invention.
They say that the best kebab is made on fruit wood, for example, plum, cherry, etc. But, as a rule, a barbecue cooked on fruit wood is almost the same as that cooked on oak wood. Therefore, you can use any trees other than conifers. Their resins will ruin the dish.
And now, the firewood has burned out, the coals are ready, the kebab is being fried. But you should not relax, you have to fight with the tongues of flame. Therefore, a bottle of water nearby will not hurt. You just need to act carefully so that the rest of the coals are not flooded.
The readiness of the kebab is checked by cutting the largest piece before the skewer. The juice secreted from it should be free of color. If there is blood, we send it to the fry.
How to serve kebab on the table
Shish kebab is an absolutely creative dish. Not only can you conjure over the marinade, you can also decorate it in different ways. Alternate shashlik on skewers with vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions), and chicken or turkey even with fruits.
After the barbecue has been removed from the grill, it is useful for him to "rest" a little, for example, cover it with a lid or wrap it in foil. You can sprinkle with red dry wine or pomegranate juice, add fresh herbs. In 10 minutes the barbecue is ready!
Serving is also wonderful on pita bread, which is soaked in meat juice and becomes a wonderful addition to the dish. Well, vegetables will do just fine. Greens, aromatic tomatoes, bell peppers, fresh cucumbers and baked eggplants and zucchini.
