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
- Cut the thinly sliced meat into 5cm lengths and place into a bowl.
- Grate the onion and garlic and add into the bowl.
- Add the rest of ingredients for marinating sauce except salt and pepper. Mix well and marinate for one hour in the refrigerator.
- While waiting, let’s make dressing. Grill the red paprika until its skin turns black. Then remove its skin and seeds.
- 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.
- 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.
- Place the puree into a cooking pot and add the rest of dressing ingredients except yogurt. Heat over medium fire until it boils.
- Once boiled, remove from the heat to cool down. Add the yogurt when it is cooled and reheat.
- 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.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Transfer to a plate and drizzle with dressing.
- 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.
