Doner Kebab - The Mouth-Watering Turkish Dish

Category : Meat Recipe

Energy : Kebab (2 kg/4 lb.) 3000 Cal / 12 kJ , Pita (12"/120 g/4 oz.) 340 Cal / 1.4 kJ, Yogurt (2 dl/1 cup) 160 Cal / 0.7 kJ

Time : 4-5 hours

Döner kebab (döner kebap in Turkish) literally means "rotating grilled meat" (any type of meat applies). The first döner kebabs were developed in Turkey by Turkish people. Authentic Turkish döner is made from lamb; regardless, mostly beef or a mix of beef and lamb is used in Europe. This article has the recipe for a complete European-style pita kebab.

Meat

Although frozen kebab is available at convenient stores, they don't match fresh home-made kebab and may not be consistent with your taste and spicing. Ingredients (four-pounder)

2 kg (4½ lb.) of ground beef (or other minced meat)

11-12 tsp. of chicken salt/season salt.

6 tsp. of black pepper (amount depends on taste preference)

Two-pounder portion

1 kg (2¹/₄ lb.) of ground beef (or other minced meat)

5½ tsp. of chicken salt/season salt

3 tsp. of black pepper (amount depends on taste preference)

One-pounder portion

500 g (1 lb.) of ground beef (or other minced meat)

2½-3 tsp. of chicken salt/season salt

1½ tsp. of black pepper (amount depends on taste preference)

If you want, you can add other spices like chili, cayenne, garlic, Barbecue sauces etc.
Preparation

Mix all the ingredients into a farce-like chunk.

Use a mixer or your hands to get air out of the chunk.

Optionally, you can make a hole with a knife to the chunk so that excess fat can drain out.

Wrap it tightly in aluminium foil, and use more than two layers of foil (so it will not rupture).

Put it into the oven and set the temperature to 100 °C (210 °F).

Let it cook for 4 hours.

Note: 4 hours applies to any size. Let's say, if you want a 1 kg chunk (half of the original portion), you should NOT leave it for 2 hours, 4 hours apply for every size. The idea is that it gets cooked slowly.

When it is done, remove it from the oven, open the foil, and let it cool down. If you did everything correctly, you should be able to use a shredder or a knife to cut it in thin slices.

Sauce

Kebab is never perfect without sauce or a dressing! Here are a couple of sauces that go with kebab: Iskender-style dressing

2-3 dl (⁴/₅-1¹/₄ cups) of unseasoned yogurt

1-3 cloves of garlic, chopped (amount depends on preference)

pinch of salt

1 tsp. of basil

1-1½ tsp. of black and/or white pepper

(Optional seasoning for taste)

green-, lemon-, or red pepper

chili pepper/chili powder

cayenne pepper

Tabasco sauce

Tomato sauce dressing

1 can of tomato paste (70 g or 2½ oz.)

½-1 tsp. of salt

½-1½ tsp. of white pepper

½-1½ tsp. of black pepper

1 tsp. of basil

pinch of oregano

ketchup (amount depends on preference)

Pita

You can either wrap the fillings into a reel or make it into a sandwich, with pita bread. You may want to make the pita slightly thinner if wrapping into a reel. If you want a relatively big kebab, then make the breads into a diameter of about 30 cm (12"). Pita Bread is more popular to Lebanese Bread

Salad

A salad consisting of tomatoes, pickles, cucumbers, and Chinese cabbage with mayonnaise is probably the most common salad eaten with kebab in Europe. There are tons of variations, of course. If you want a healthy choice, make sure you balance the cereals class (pita), meat class (kebab), and vegetable class (salad) well! You can also add chile peppers, jalapeño, red onions and such for the salad to fit your taste!

Serving

There are several ways and styles to serve döner. Here are a few:

Sandwich-style
Slice the pita bread from the middle, then lay the salad, kebab and dressings like you would do with a hamburger.

Reel-kebab
The roll wrap for a reel-kebab can be done using the same technique as for burritos (using pita bread).

Kebab pizza
Simply prepare a pizza and top it with kebab.

Kebab with rice
Fill roughly over a half of a plate with kebab, and the rest with cooked rice. Dress with ketchup or any of the sauce recipes mentioned in this article.

Kebab with chips
Same as kebab with rice except that the rice has been replaced by chips (a.k.a French fries).

Drink

Although it is obvious that the drink which one chooses is a matter of taste. Regardless, you should always remember in case you prepare really hot food and do not wish to burn your tongue, that milk, in fact, is an effective "anti-heat" agent, in case you think you may need one.