Shashlik

Make it step by step

1. Cut the lamb into 4cm cubes, keeping them as close to the same size as you can so they finish together.
2. Leave the fat on. Shashlik cut from trimmed lean meat goes dry within a minute of being done, and the fat is what bastes it and drips onto the coals.
3. Put the meat in a large non-reactive bowl and work the grated onion into it with your hands for a minute.
4. Grated onion is doing the real work here: its juice loosens the muscle fibres, which onion rings sitting alongside cannot do.
5. Add the vinegar, mineral water, salt, ground peppercorns, coriander and crumbled bay leaves.
6. Scatter the onion rings over the top and turn everything together.
7. Cover and refrigerate for 8-12 hours, turning the bowl out once halfway through.
8. Do not push it past a day. Acid eventually goes through the surface of the meat and leaves it pale, soft and mealy rather than tender, and there is no recovering from it.
9. Light the charcoal about 40 minutes before you want to cook.
10. Wait until the coals are covered in grey ash all over and no flame is showing. Meat set over live flame blackens outside while the middle is still raw, and dripping fat feeds the flames straight back up.
11. Thread 5-6 pieces onto each flat metal skewer, pressing them together and alternating a fattier piece with a leaner one.
12. Lift the onion rings out of the marinade into a sieve, rinse them briefly under cold water and set them aside to serve raw.
13. Brush the skewers with the sunflower oil.
14. Lay the skewers across the mangal or grill, about 10-12cm above the coals.
15. Turn them every 2-3 minutes for a total of 12-18 minutes.
16. Keep a cup of water beside you and flick a little at any flare-up, otherwise soot from burning fat settles on the meat and tastes of it.
17. They are done when the outside is crusted deep brown in patches, the fat has rendered and gone translucent, and the centre of a cube reads 65C/150F.
18. Lay the skewers on a warm dish, cover loosely with foil and rest for 5 minutes so the juices settle.
19. Push the meat off the skewers, scatter over the parsley and the raw onion rings.
20. Serve with the lemon wedges.