Meat Kebab - Souvlaki - Σουβλάκι

We recently went to Full Moon Farm to buy meat for shish kebab. Shish kebob is a middle eastern way of cooking food and it is basically cooked over charcoals. My parents were cooking shish kebob back in the old country over charcoals and it was delicious. My dad (ref 1, 2, 3) was in charge of the grill, which was like a small rectangular box with four short legs and with the top open. My parents had purchased metal skewers that they would use to make shish kebobs. The recipe was simple: rub the meat with olive oil and then sprinkle a generous amount of salt and oregano.

Here are two pictures of the package.

Raspy, as you can see, was waiting for a treat. I took a small piece of meat and cooked it separately for her. Chopped it in small pieces and then she was gone leaving me alone.

I cut the meat in small, larger than bite-sized pieces. The smaller the pieces the faster it will cook. Greek fast-food restaurants cut them in 3/4" pieces and then put them on bamboo skewers for grilling. Of course I am talking about souvlaki, σουβλάκι. Unfortunately, they use briquets because they burn better thus holding the temperature constant longer periods of time. 

Applied some olive oil, enough to lightly coat the meat but not to drench it. Then I grabbed and sprinkled 1/4 cup oregano, and chopped four cloves of garlic. By the way, as I was mixing these ingredients with the meat I could feel the tenderness of the meat. It felt like butter.

What is the bottle of rum doing there? Oh. I also mixed 1/8 cup of it too. I let the meat sit aside for a half hour.

I used a pan large enough to hold the skewers, added some water and then placed the wooden skewers in the water. Of course I held the skewers under the water with a heavy object, a water glass. This way, the wooden skewers will not burn when placed on the hot grill.

I took two medium onions and one red pepper...

and cut each onion in eights and the pepper in 1" square pieces.

Finally, I put the meat, pepper and onion on the skewers.

Here is Achilles getting ready for the show.

Here are the skewers patiently waiting for Achilles to get ready.

As soon as the charcoals were ready I placed the skewers on the grate.

Yum!

Now depending upon the size of the meat the time will vary. Also, the closer you place the skewers to the charcoals the faster it will cook. You also want to pay attention to the veggies too. Don't place the skewers right over the charcoals because the flareups will burn the souvlaki. I cooked them for one minute over direct heat and turned them over for another minute. Then, I moved them and cooked them over indirect heat for 15 minutes and then turned them over for another 15 minutes.

The garden looks better and better every time I go out there. I love the azaleas

Here is the final product. This souvlaki looks good.

Yum!

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