Georgia's skewer of pork (or veal) grilled over grapevine embers, traditionally with no marinade at all — just salt and the smoke of the vineyard prunings. Served buried in raw onion rings with pomegranate seeds and tkemali plum sauce.
Also known as: mtswadi, Georgian shashlik, mcvadi, basturma mtsvadi
Watch it made
Ingredients
- 1 kg pork neck, in 4 cm cubes
- 1.5 tbsp coarse salt
- 100 ml dry red wine, in a splash bottle
- 2 onions, in thin rings
- Seeds of half a pomegranate
- Tkemali (sour plum sauce)
- Shoti or other crusty bread
- Grapevine prunings or lump charcoal
How to make it
- 1
Burn vine cuttings (the Kakhetian ideal) down to fierce embers; no flames, no marinade, no apologies.
- 2
Salt the pork and thread the cubes pressed hard against one another with zero gaps.
- 3
Grill about 15 minutes, turning as each face bronzes, and spritz with red wine whenever fat flares.
- 4
Push the meat off the skewer onto bread and immediately bury it under raw onion rings and pomegranate seeds.
- 5
Cover 3 minutes so the onions wilt in the steam, then serve with tkemali.
Pro tip: Packing the cubes tight is deliberate and opposite to most kebabs: the touching faces stay juicy and steam-tender while only the outer faces char, so each piece has both textures.
