Eat at Andrea's: Michael Symon's Pork Souvlaki

If there is anyone out there who has been reading this blog since the beginning, you'll recognize this recipe. I did "blog" about it but it was a pretty sad attempt! All I did was post the recipe!

So here's the full deal. I love this recipe. LOVE IT! It came up in conversation this past weekend so I just had to make it. The marinade is the best Greek marinade for meat I've ever found. It's great with both pork or chicken.

Here's another LINK to the recipe. But I'll add the basics below as well.

What's in this yummy marinade? There are just a few ingredients really, a couple of minced shallots, a couple of minced cloves of garlic, some fresh oregano, a jalapeno pepper (yea, that surprised me too!), the juice of one lemon and some olive oil. The recipe says to seed the jalapeno before mincing it. I leave a few seeds in for just a little heat.

Into this yummy mixture you add chunks of pork tenderloin. The recipe says to marinate 3 hours or overnight. While you will get good flavor in 3 hours, over night it's just amazing!

While the pork was marinating I made a simple tzatziki (cucumber) sauce. Michael Symon serves his souvlaki with honeyed apricots. I've made them, and they are good, but Dave and I prefer the simplicity of cucumber sauce!

The sauce is easy to make and can be made a day in advance. Simply seed and shred or dice a cucumber. Put the cucumber and a teaspoon of salt in a glass bowl and let it sit for 15 minutes. This will draw a lot of the water out of the cucumber and enhance the flavor.

Next, place two cups of plain yogurt in a strainer lined with a paper towel or paper towel and place this over a bowl and then put the whole thing in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. This will draw some of the liquid out of the yogurt. If you have Greek yogurt on hand you can use that, no straining necessary!

After 15 minutes, squeeze as much liquid out of the cucumber as possible. Add it to the drained yogurt along with a clove of garlic (minced), 1/8th of a teaspoon of pepper and a 1/4 of a teaspoon of dill. Mix that up and stick it back into the refrigerator until time to serve it.

When the pork is ready, heat up the grill and place the marinated pieces of pork on skewers. Be sure to soak them if you are using wooden skewers. Place them on the hot grill and grill for just a few minutes on each side.

I like to brush both sides of some Greek pita bread with olive oil and grill that too!