
With two salads, a yoghurt sauce and toasted pitta breads, it's a complete meal, albeit a messy one, so don't forget the napkins, or indeed the wine to go with it – I like a chilled red, robust enough to stand up to the marinade but light and refreshing enough for warm weather. Pair with a Greek wine for the full Hellenic experience.
Pork souvlaki
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the souvlaki:
- 1 lemon
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 50ml olive oil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- Salt and pepper
- 800g boneless pork shoulder, neck or tenderloin, cut into roughly 2.5cm pieces
- ½ white cabbage, thinly shredded
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 lemons
- 1 small red onion, finely sliced
- 10 tomatoes cut into chunks
- Handful of chopped parsley
- 500g Greek yoghurt
- 1 small garlic clove, crushed
- 4 pitta breads
- Wooden skewers soaked in cold water
Method
- To make the souvlaki, whisk together the zest and juice of the lemon with the garlic, oil and oregano and season well. Put the pork in a bowl, pour over the marinade, cover and leave to sit for up to eight hours in the fridge.
- Half an hour before you want to eat, get the pork out of the fridge. Toss together the cabbage in a large bowl with plenty of salt and pepper, and dress with oil and a squeeze of lemon. Set aside. Heat the barbecue, if you're using it (if not, you can cook them in a hot, greased griddle pan), and soak four wooden skewers in cold water.
- Put the onion in a separate salad bowl and squeeze the remaining lemon over the top. Season and leave to sit for 10 minutes, then add the tomatoes and parsley and toss together.
- Stir together the yoghurt, 1 tbsp oil and crushed garlic and season to taste.
- Thread the pork on to the skewers, cramming the pieces as close together as possible, and grill for about 10 minutes, turning to colour evenly, until just cooked through. Toast the pittas and then serve with the pork skewers, salads and yoghurt dip for people to stuff themselves (literally).