Как ни дул ветер вечером, уголь всё равно горел ровно, и мясо успело поджариться.

Here как ни introduces a concessive idea: no matter how..., however much...

So:

Как ни дул ветер вечером, ...
means roughly
No matter how the wind blew in the evening... or more naturally No matter how hard the wind blew in the evening...

This structure often shows that one fact did not change the result in the main clause.

Pattern:

• Как ни + verb/adverb..., всё равно ...
• However much / no matter how ..., still ...

So the sentence sets up a contrast:

• the wind was blowing,
• but despite that, the charcoal burned evenly and the meat still cooked.

In this pattern, Russian uses ни, not не.

Как ни... is a fixed concessive construction meaning:

• however...
• no matter how...

Examples:

• Как ни старался, не получилось. = No matter how hard he tried, it didn’t work.
• Как ни спешили, опоздали. = However much they hurried, they were late.

So ни here does not simply mean negation by itself. It is part of a set expression that strengthens the idea of concession.

Дул is the past tense of дуть = to blow.

It is in:

• past tense
• masculine singular

because the subject is ветер = wind, which is masculine singular.

Russian past tense agrees with the subject in gender and number:

• ветер дул
• буря дула
• ветры дули

So дул is used because ветер is masculine.

Because ветер is the subject of дул.

In ветер дул, the wind is the thing performing the action of blowing, so it stays in the nominative case.

A native English speaker may wonder whether it should change because of как ни, but it does not. The clause still has a normal subject-verb structure:

• ветер = subject
• дул = verb

Вечером is the instrumental singular of вечер.

Russian often uses the instrumental case adverbially to express time, especially with parts of the day:

• утром = in the morning
• днём = during the day
• вечером = in the evening
• ночью = at night

So here вечером is not an object. It functions like an adverb of time:

• ветер дул вечером = the wind blew in the evening

This is a very common pattern and worth memorizing as a time expression.

Here уголь is being used as a mass noun, so singular is normal.

In context, it most likely means charcoal, not ordinary coal from the ground, because the sentence mentions meat cooking over it.

Russian often uses singular mass nouns where English also uses an uncountable noun:

• уголь горел = the charcoal was burning

You may also see угли = coals, especially when talking about glowing pieces individually:

• мясо жарилось на углях = the meat was cooking over the coals

So:

• уголь = charcoal/coal as a substance
• угли = coals as separate glowing pieces

In this sentence, всё равно means all the same, anyway, or still.

It emphasizes that the result in the main clause happened despite what came before.

So:

• Как ни дул ветер вечером, уголь всё равно горел ровно... means
• No matter how hard the wind blew in the evening, the charcoal still burned evenly...

A learner may know всё равно from sentences like:

• Мне всё равно = I don’t care / It’s all the same to me

That is a different but related usage. In your sentence, it does not mean I don’t care. It means despite that, the result remained the same.

Here ровно means evenly, steadily, or smoothly, not exactly.

So уголь горел ровно means:

• the charcoal burned steadily
• the fire stayed even
• it was not flaring up and dying down unpredictably

Russian ровно can mean different things depending on context:

• ровно в шесть = exactly at six
• ровно гореть = to burn evenly/steadily

So in this sentence, it describes the quality of the burning, not precision in time or number.

This is a very common aspect contrast in Russian.

Горел is imperfective because it describes an ongoing process or background state:

• the charcoal was burning steadily

The sentence is not focusing on the beginning or end of the burning, just the way it continued.

Поджариться is perfective because it refers to reaching a result:

• the meat got browned / finished cooking enough

And успело is also perfective, because успеть means to manage to, to have time to, with emphasis on successful completion before some limit.

So the contrast is:

• горел = ongoing process
• успело поджариться = completed outcome

Because the subject is мясо, and мясо is neuter singular.

Russian past tense agrees with the subject:

• он успел
• она успела
• оно успело
• они успели

Since мясо is neuter, the correct form is:

• мясо успело поджариться

Even though English meat does not show gender, Russian nouns do, and verbs in the past tense reflect that.

Literally, it is something like:

• managed to get browned
• had time to cook/brown

The verb успеть adds the idea that something happened successfully before it was too late or before conditions changed.

So мясо успело поджариться suggests:

• despite the wind, the cooking conditions were steady enough,
• and the meat actually had time to become properly browned/cooked.

This is slightly more nuanced than simply мясо поджарилось, which would just state the result without the extra idea of managing to or having enough time to.

The reflexive -ся here does not mean the meat is literally doing something to itself in the English sense. In Russian, reflexive verbs often have a broader function.

Compare:

• поджарить мясо = to fry / brown the meat
  This is transitive: someone cooks the meat.

• мясо поджарилось = the meat got browned / cooked
  This is intransitive: it describes what happened to the meat.

So поджариться is the natural choice when the meat is the grammatical subject and you are focusing on the result affecting it.

Because the sentence begins with a subordinate concessive clause:

Как ни дул ветер вечером, ...

That whole part is one clause, and it is separated from the main clause by a comma.

Structure:

• subordinate clause: Как ни дул ветер вечером
• main clause: уголь всё равно горел ровно, и мясо успело поджариться

English also often uses a comma after a fronted clause:

• Although the wind was blowing, ...
• No matter how hard the wind blew, ...

So the comma is standard Russian punctuation here.

The basic meaning would stay the same if the word order changed a little, but the given order is natural.

For example:

• Как ни дул вечером ветер...
• Вечером, как ни дул ветер...

These are possible, but they shift emphasis slightly.

The original:

• Как ни дул ветер вечером... sounds straightforward and neutral:
  1. concessive frame first
  2. subject and verb clearly placed
  3. time expression at the end of the clause

Russian word order is flexible, but it is not random. Changes usually affect focus, rhythm, or style rather than core grammar.

Yes, in natural English you might sometimes translate it with although or even though, but как ни is more specific than a simple although.

Compare:

• Хотя ветер дул вечером... = Although the wind was blowing in the evening...
• Как ни дул ветер вечером... = No matter how hard the wind blew in the evening...

The second version is stronger and more emphatic. It suggests that the wind’s blowing might have been expected to interfere, but it did not.

So although can work as a smooth translation in some contexts, but no matter how or however much captures the Russian structure more closely.