Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it's a start.
– Anthony Bourdain

What this shashlyk is about?

Shashlik or shashlyk (Armenian: խորոված khorovats, Azerbaijani: şişlik or tikə kabab, Georgian: მწვადი mtsvadi, Persian: شیشلیک‎‎ – Šišlik, Russian: шашлы́к, Polish: Szaszłyk, Lithuanian: šašlykas, Turkish: şaşlık, Hebrew: שישליק‎‎, Urdu: شاشلِک ), is a form of Shish kebab popular in Eastern and Central Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary), the Baltic region in Northern Europe (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia), the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Iraq, Mongolia, Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey, and other places. Shashlik (meaning skewered meat) was originally made of lamb. Nowadays it is also made of pork or beef depending on local preferences and religious observances. The skewers are either threaded with meat only, or with alternating pieces of meat, fat, and vegetables, such as bell pepper, onion, mushroom and tomato. | Wikipedia

I’ve been cooking shashlyk and any other kinds of bbq quite regularly (mostly in summer) over the last 20 years. And I will tell you one thing: when doing barbecues nothing matters, except good meat. I know it requires some skills to cook it, but it’s really hard to fail, if you try and have a proper fresh meat.

What you will need

Nevertheless, here are some ingredients for the best skewers you ever tasted:

skewers, preferably metal ones (it wasn’t a problem to find these even in Spain in the Chinese store around the corner, or any Russian store);
wood, which is better or bbq charcoal;
2 kg (4.5 lbs) of pork neck or pork entrecote (pardon my French), some lamers do it with pork shoulder also, but leave it to them;
0,5-1 kg onions;

Marinade components:

salt, garlic (several cloves minced), mustard, black pepper (red pepper or any other good too), basil, parsley, coriander, turmeric and some little vegetable oil (olive or sunflower) mixed in a bowl.

Cut meat into 5x5cm cubes (more or less) and cut excessive fat:

Cut onions into thick rings:

Mix it all up with marinade for some time, cover and put into a fridge (if you are not in a hurry—leave it over night, but some hour or two would be enough).

Meanwhile start a fire, open a cold bottle of beer and enjoy:

How to do it right

When there is almost no fire anymore thread the meat onto the skewers, each piece separated by onion rings (you may add whatever vegetables you prefer, like small tomatoes or such).