Topic: shawarma recipe to do yourself at home

[rshome123]

Made this again today (chicken version) & the tahini sauce.

Adjusted recipe slightly adding a squire of ketchup in the tahini sauce, and added some pan fried mushroom/garlic/red pepper.

Delicious.  Waiting to hear your results with lamb, Jerry.

[Ghoulie]

rshome123 - you'd probably like ANY shawarmas in Rusholme judging by the amount of other jollop you lace your tahine sauce with! LOL

[JerryM]

Tea tonight felt like a restaurant meal. As Ghoulie says it's the combination that works.

Must admit not normally a fan of Mayo. However putting it together in the pitta with the tahini changed all that. I put  garlic powder and garlic salt in normal Mayo to make the garlic Mayo.

I dont know what the rusholme offering tastes like but I'm sorted as is. 

Will add photo of the lamb when on desktop.

Used the toaster for the 1st time to heat the pitta and worked a treat - have ditched the pan warming method 

I was real concerned at putting parsley into the Tahine yet it transformed the taste. For info the tahine without tastes a tad like humous (which I love).

I made half portion of the tahine using 1 off lemon which gave 5 tbsp of juice.

There are a few things I'd change:

1) maybe try leg in place of shoulder - shoulder has a tad more fat giving extra crispy and meat itself tasted brill. I was unable to spot gristle during the meat prep and did not like ending up in the pitta. The crispy from the shoulder was perfect though. Maybe need to skewer it next time ie smaller pieces easier to remove gristle 
2) would up the amount of marinade x2 could not detect the cinnamon so that certainly needs more. I think even the lime powder could go up too as the taste was quite subtle
3) made the tahine 2 hrs before - would make day before

Well pleased - ghoulie's effort in posting much appreciated.

[rshome123]

Ghoulish, give me a pitta bread, grilled meat and sauce/salad and I'm happy, regardless of recipe, but this shawarma hits the spot.  A habit I have (good or bad) is to fiddle around with recipes...  I like a bit more tang in kebab sauces.  Do you have a chilli sauce recipe that would go well alongside the tahini?

Jerry...good to see feedback on the lamb version.  I agree on the cinnamon & lime powder amounts... Don't be shy with them.  (I assume you are using cinammon(cassia) powder and not whole bark).

Tha tahini paste, as you said, tastes surprisingly like hummus.  I didnt have fresh parsley, so used a little dried, but added fresh coriander, and made sure there was enough lemon juice for some tang, as well as a squirt of tomato ketchup (hey... Nobody is perfect).

[Secret Santa]

Any recommendations for pitta bread? I've not found a variety yet that compares favourably to the takeaway ones.

[rshome123]

SS... The LIDL (UK) ones I've found to be favourable, as well as ones I buy from the local asian grocery.  I think the key is to warm them well in the toaster, without turning them crispy. 

[Ghoulie]

Great stuff guys - glad the taste (with all the personal additional variations to suit palate!) met expectations.  You can't beat a good shawarma.

In the Trafford Centre @ 3 years back there was a kiosk in the lower food hall that di chicken or beef shawarmas - they weren't bad either.  Sadly after a year it had gone

[JerryM]

Secret Santa,

I too found it impossible to get top notch pitta. Those that split evenly and easily.

Aldi are what I buy.

The toaster amazingly made a huge difference with them splitting easily albeit not evenly down the middle.

[JerryM]

pic of lamb shoulder

[Edwin Catflap]

Hi

I have been trying to do these and souvlaki,s and gyros for a while and not been happy with the dry, cut pittas, so i found a greek deli that did greek pittas, not cheap 80p each, and bought a bag of 10 and these were deelish, just warmed in the micro or wrapped in foil and warmed in the oven. They are pliable, slightly thicker, absorbent and are lovely right at the end when the juices have soaked in rather than the anaemic and dry usual pittas

ED