Homemade Pork Kebab in Lavash with Onion and Cilantro Salad

Step-by-step recipe

1. For pork kebab, it is best to use slightly fatty meat without bones or gristle.
   
2. Peel two onions and slice them into very thin half-rings – as thin as you can. The half-rings should separate from each other. Put the onion into a deep bowl. Season it with salt and pepper, add half a teaspoon of sugar and stir. Let the onion sit for 10 mins so the salt and sugar dissolve.
   
3. Add 3-4 tbsp of wine vinegar, stir, cover with a napkin or a saucer and refrigerate for 1 hour or longer. The onion should be well marinated.
4. Wash the pork and remove any bones and gristle. Put the meat through a meat grinder twice to get smooth ground pork.
5. In a blender, chop one onion, the garlic and 3-4 sprigs of cilantro. Add salt, pepper and coriander to taste. You should get a strongly fragrant, spicy mixture.
   
6. In a deep bowl, combine the ground pork, the spicy green mixture and one egg.
   
7. Mix the meat very thoroughly. Don't be lazy – mix it once more. If the mixture is too dense, you can add 2-3 tbsp of cold water. Put the meat into an airtight container and refrigerate.
   
8. Ideally, the meat should rest in the cold for a few hours; better still, make it in the evening and grill it in the morning. The onion will only get tastier if it marinates overnight.
9. Next, grill the kebabs.
10. Any grill will do. If you can use hot coals, that is the best option. In a city apartment, homemade kebab grills beautifully on an electric grill or in a ridged grill pan. Grease the grill grate well with vegetable oil.
11. While the grill heats up, mix the meat once more. Then shape the kebabs into sausages 10-12 cm long and 3-4 cm in diameter. To keep the meat from sticking to your fingers, wet your hands with cold water.
    
12. As soon as the grill is hot enough – drops of water sizzle and evaporate – lay the sausages on the grate.
    
13. Grill on all 4 sides for 3.5-4 mins each. That is enough for the meat sausages to cook through and for the hot grate to leave nice grill marks on the surface.
    
14. Finely chop all the remaining cilantro with a knife. Squeeze out the marinated onion – or better, rinse it under cold running water to remove excess vinegar, then squeeze it.
    
15. After rinsing, add a pinch of sugar, a little salt and ground pepper. Mix the marinated onion with the chopped cilantro.
    
16. Take the finished meat sausages off the grate and place them on a plate or cutting board.
    
17. Thin lavash is sold in almost every store, but it must be fresh. Cut a sheet of thin lavash into equal pieces, each about the size of two open palms. One sheet usually gives 8 pieces suitable for wrapping a kebab.
    
18. Put 1 tbsp of the spicy marinated onion and cilantro salad on each piece of lavash.
    
19. Place one grilled sausage on the lavash.
    
20. Wrap the grilled meat and salad in the thin lavash, roughly the way you wrap filling in a cabbage leaf when making stuffed cabbage rolls with rice , or simply roll it up.
    
21. Let the homemade kebab with herbs, wrapped in thin lavash, rest for up to 1 hour so the lavash soaks up the moisture from the herb salad.
22. Arrange the wrapped meat on a large platter garnished with herbs. Parsley, cilantro and spinach leaves work great. Pomegranate seeds, if you have them, give the dish a special touch.
    
23. This dish is eaten without a knife and fork – just pick it up with your hands. Baked potatoes, fried eggplant or simply roasted vegetables make a great side.