Shashlik / шашлык
The recipe is almost too simple to post. Its origins are rather interesting. The word shashlik entered English from a Russian word, which was borrowed from a Turkic language. Shish means skewer, shishlik can be translated as "skewerable”. Its origins are from Central-Asia but by the 20th century it was very common in the Russian Empire. Originally the meat would have been lamb meat, but depending on your religion pork works really well. I got a 300 gram piece of Schweinekamm with plenty of fat. I cut the meat in big cuncks and marinated the pork in water with salt and cumin powder. The water evaporates on the fire leaving the salt and cumin behind in the meat.
The shashlik I know is mainly from German restaurants we used to visit as a family in the 1970s or 80s. The meat is skewered with onion and paprika. All you have to do is keep the temperature of the charcoal low enough not to burn the meat, and turn the skewers often!
I simply served all three skewers to myself with a yoghurt sauce made of: yoghurt, grated cucumber, raw garlic, salt and cumin powder. This was just perfect.
