Shashlik (shashlyk, Rus. шашлык) barbecue is not only a meal and a cooking style but also a cultural concept. What can be better than grabbing good cuts of meat, marinating them in accordance with your secret recipe, and cooking it outdoors over char coal with a large company of friends or relatives. Social gatherings accompanied by smoky juicy shashlik are popular throughout the year- both in warm summer days and with white snow at the background. People would often go to the nature which gets more or less wild as soon as you leave a city behind, or to their country houses called datcha (private village house with a some land).
Shashlik can be cooked with any meat, but it should be marinated in advance. There are literally millions of the marinade recipes, and the main ingredient is usually some kind of a softener -it can be vinegar, or kefir (plain yogurt) or onion rings, some would say fizzy mineral water is great. Most popular element in marinating the meat is finely sliced onions – releasing the juicе it softens the meat and enriches its flavour. The meat marinated in advance is brought to the meeting point in a pot and then the magic of the cooking happens.
Chunks of meat are placed tightly to each other onto long metallic skewers and grilled over charcoal in mangal-the BBQ basin. Prior to that the coals must have been burning for about 10-15 minutes and got white and grey ashy coating. Then you keep a watchful eye over shampur (skewer) turning it around, and looking out that the coals don’t start catching fire in which case you would drizzle some water over them. Cooking shashlik is fun and it is certainly an art- an art well worth mastering.
Fresh air helps build up an appetite and so does the delicious smoke, so the expectations are high on the cook. If it the meat comes out great than its a success with a capital S. Plenty of fresh vegetables and ice cold beverages will crown the meal.
What meat can be used: everything – chicken, pork, beef or lamb. Go for the fattier cuts. If the cuts are too lean they can dry when being grilled and to prevent this you might need to oil them for time to time.
We are going to upload a few recipes of shashlik marinade, starting with beef. You’re welcome to add your questions and suggestions or tips in comments!
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Beef shashlik – Marinade 1.
Rib eye cuts of beef: 500 gr (because it is tender and juicy, and fat is great for grilling)
Marinade (for 500 gr/18 ounces of meat):
3 onions
Coarse Salt- 1 pinch
Black pepper – 1 pinch
Coriander – 2 pinches
Optional:
Provence herbs – a small amount for aroma
Some flakes of crushed dry chili peppers
(we are not going for the spiciness but for the flavour)
Preparation:
Finely slice the onion, bring to a pot and squeeze with your hands to release extra juice (you may want to use swimming goggles for tear free chopping 🙂 )
Wash the meat, cut into chunks, dry up with a paper towel.
Sprinkle all the herbs/spices/salt over the cuts of meat and put the meat into the pot with onion rings. Mix well and leave to marinade for about 2 hours or more.
Prior to grilling, make sure the meat has the room temperature, so if you had the pot in the fridge take it out in advance.
Prepare the coal. Once it’s coated with ashes skewer the meat onto the skewers (shampurs) discarding onions and grill, rotating the skewers and watching that the coats don’t catch fire.
You can also sprinkle some herbs over the coals – rosemary etc. – for extra flavour of the smoke.
Don’t overgrill the meat – slightly press the meat, if it’s not too soft it should be ready.
Serve over a lot of salad and enjoy!
Chicken thighs shashlik
The main condition for making a delicious shahlik barbeque is soaking of chicken in the marinade for a long time. When being soaked, the meat acquires not only a delicate texture, but also unique shades of taste. The kefir marinade is especially good – it is easy to prepare and does not require a large number of components.
Ingredients:
chicken thighs – 2 kg;
low-fat kefir – 1 l;
a bunch of cilantro – 1 pc.;
onions – 3 pcs.;
Garlic cloves- 6 pcs.;
ground pepper, salt – to taste.
Cooking method:
Wash chicken meat under running water, dry on paper towel.
Peel the garlic, pass through a press or finely chop with a knife. Mix the resulting gruel with salt.
Place the thighs in a container for marinating, rub each piece with a mixture of garlic and salt, pepper on both sides.
Peel the onion, cut into thin half rings. Add to meat.
Rinse greens under running water, dry and chop finely with a knife. Add into a container with other components.
Pour kefir over the future shashlik so that the meat is completely covered with it. Mix.
Place the container on the lower shelf of the refrigerator. Marinate for 1.5 to 9 hours, depending on how much time is available. The longer the meat stays in the liquid, the more tender it will turn out over the fire.
String the prepared chicken on skewers (shampurs) or place on the barbecue grill. Roast over coals for 15-17 minutes, remembering to periodically turn over.
Oladi (oladji) are small thick fluffy pancakes made with yeast dough. It’s one of those recipes that make weekend mornings special, making everybody happy. Oladji pancakes are certainly a great way to start the weekend of a leisurely chilling day or of an adventurous one with plenty outdoors activities!
Yeast needs some time for rising – something to take into account. Otherwise the recipe is straightforward and early birds will really appreciate it.
Extra serving tips: Quick and fresh berry jams, for exapmple thawed lingonberries or sea buckthorns blitzed with some sugar.
Cooking ideas: You can also add chopped apples, berries or nuts to the oladi when you are mixing in eggs, oil, sugar and salt.
Forget about chemical dyes that make the Easter eggs look gaudy. Let’s colour the eggs with onion skins – this organic way will give the eggs rich brown and red colour. You can brighten up this colour with the help of rice grains or little leaves. Easy handicraft, organic way and making your own magic in the kitchen – that’s the way to go.
Despite the availability of a wide range of various dyes in Russia, colouring Easter still holds a strong position as a centuries-long tradition. You will need several handfuls of onion skins. The best way to ensure this quantity is starting to collect these skins in advance, treating them like golden treasure.
Then there’s a tip from a different cuisine – you can make a base gravy for an Indian curry, as it takes a lot of onions. A nd the last but not least approach – you can venture to the market and ask the greengrocer for some onion skins, this is if you are determined and tolerant to all sorts of surprise on the other end.
Now, having a necessary amount of onion skins the rest is easy.
What you will need:
A small bag full of onion skins
Water
Salt
Eggs
Vegetable oil
Paper towel
For decoration:
Some rice/tiny leaves (for example,parsley)
Bandage
Threads
How to:
Bring together water, leaves and salt into a pot, boil for 40 minutes and leave for several hours to infuse. (Salt will prevent the egg shelves from cracking.) Bring the pot to boil again, leaving the skins in.
Wash the eggs and boil in the pot with onion skins for 15 minutes. Take out, dry and rub in some oil with the help of a paper towel
For patterns
Roll a wet eggs in a bowl with rice/ Stick a tiny leaf, for instance a parsley leaf, to a wet egg. Wrap with a bandage and secure with a thread. Boil together with other eggs, take off the wrapping and oil for the shine.
Boil onion skins (40 min) and infuse over a few hours
Kukuruznye palochki (corn pops) are puffy and foamy sweet sticks, slightly powdered with a sweet coating. This tea time treat melts in your mouth and children in Russia treat this food as a delicacy (and so do some adults). Beware: these sweet bites are very addictive, when you open the pack you’ll finish them in a blink of an eye (except Self control is your second name). This product is also very popular in Baltic countries.
Borodinsky bread is one of the most popular bread in Russia and some former USSR countries. This dark brown sourdough rye bread has soft and moist texture, and is characterized by its distinctive flavour. Molasses, rye malt and coriander used in baking give the loaf its rich aroma and herby taste with slightly sweet notes.
The name of the bread has a reference to Borodino – a village around which a battle took place between Napoleon and the Russian army in 19 century. Despite the fact that baking of this bread on a production scale started in 1933, urban legends still try to connect the origin of the bread with this battle of Borodino.
So there is a story the widow of General Alexandr Tuchkov who perished in the battle, established a convent. Mourning for her beloved husband she was finding a relief in baking, and together with the convent nuns she created the recipe of the bread. The coriander seeds were thus a symbol of grapeshot.
The recipe of bread with coriander seeds can indeed be found in 19 century, but since the production and the name of the bread appeared in the 20 century, the above romantic story can be perhaps discarded as a case of folk etymology.
Borodinsky bread can be enjoyed on its own or with some butter, and is a great compliment for soups. It can also accompany meals that use eggs – sunny side up fried eggs or various sandwiches with eggs and salmon. Another interesting combination is having a piece of Borodinsky bread with herring butter.
