Recipe: Doner Kebab

My husband and I text each other during the day using Wechat. Around 3 or 4pm, I often ask him, “What did you have for lunch?” This is to avoid making the same kind of dish for dinner. One day, he replied saying “Kebab.” Aww, kebab. I haven’t had that for awhile. Then I thought to myself, “Can’t I make that at home?” So I searched for a recipe which doesn’t use an oven (We didn’t have an oven until last summer).  Then I found a doner kebab recipe shared by a Japanese woman living in Bursa, Turkey. This came out fabulous! Initially I didn’t bother making dressing and had it without dressing, but still it was so good. You can of course use chicken instead of lamb or beef.

Recipe: Doner Kebab

Servings: 3-4

Ingredients

♣ Marinating sauce ♣

• 400g lamb or beef, thinly sliced
• ¼ brown onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 5 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon yogurt
• 1 tablespoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon allspice powder
• A pinch of cinnamon powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

♣ Dressing ♣

• 2 tomatoes
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons yogurt

Cooking instructions

1. Cut the thinly sliced meat into 5cm lengths and place into a bowl.
2. Grate the onion and garlic and add into the bowl.
3. Add the rest of ingredients for marinating sauce except salt and pepper. Mix well and marinate for one hour in the refrigerator.
4. While waiting, let’s make dressing. Grill the red paprika until its skin turns black. Then remove its skin and seeds.
5. Remove the tomato skin. There are several ways to remove skins. Depending on the type of tomato, sometimes I simply remove its skin using my fingers and knife without using boiled water or gas flame. Please use the method you are comfortable with.
6. Puree the peeled red paprika and tomato with the garlic using food processor. For those who don’t have a food processor like me, mince them and use mortar and pestle to make puree.
7. Place the puree into a cooking pot and add the rest of dressing ingredients except yogurt. Heat over medium fire until it boils.
8. Once boiled, remove from the heat to cool down. Add the yogurt when it is cooled and reheat.
9. Pour the marinated meat into a frying pan. Cook until the meat is done and slightly crispy. There is no need to use cooking oil here.
10. Season with salt and pepper.
11. Transfer to a plate and drizzle with dressing.
12. Enjoy with pilaf, pita bread or boiled potato!

This article was written by Chia.
I’m a freelance translator with background in biology. Upon meeting my future husband in Spain, I moved to Hong Kong to start our lives together. I’m still exploring what Hong Kong has got to offer.