On the heat. All four heats

Ingredients

• 800 g boneless leg, 25 mm cubes
• — FIRST MARINADE — 30 MINUTES
• 1 tbsp ginger–garlic paste
• 2 tbsp lemon juice · 1 tsp salt
• — SECOND MARINADE — 4 HOURS
• 200 g thick yoghurt, hung 30 min in a cloth
• 2 tsp roasted cumin, 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp garam masala, ½ tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp Kashmiri chilli (colour) plus hot chilli to taste
• 2 tbsp mustard oil or ghee
• 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaf, crushed

Method

1. First marinade on, 30 minutes. The acid opens the meat so the yoghurt can get in.
2. Hang the yoghurt in a cloth for half an hour. Wet yoghurt slides off in the fire and takes the spice with it.
3. Second marinade on, four hours minimum, overnight is better. No longer than 24 — past that the acid turns the surface woolly.
4. Thread onto skewers with a 1 cm gap between cubes. Touching cubes steam each other and you lose the char.
5. Fierce coals. Four minutes, turn, four minutes. You want blackened edges and a pink centre.
6. Rest five minutes, then lemon and raw onion. Nothing else.

Cook's note. The gap matters. Every failed kebab on a home braai is cubes packed tight against each other. Leave the gap and the fire reaches all six faces.

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