Phil and Sarah
The Recipe to be modified:
http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2012/08/chicken-shawarma/
Yes, I always modify. I cannot stick to the recipe. Unless it’s for Bread. And then I can. But that’s a Formula. It’s different.
Tuesday Night:
Good thing I have a well stocked spice cabinet!
Here goes nothing.
Wednesday:
NOT what I did for sauce, but what inspired me:
http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2015/03/toum-middle-eastern-garlic-sauce/
What really I should have done, but I didn’t have any Tahini, and when I was at the store I was hungry and tired and didn’t want to look for Tahini:
http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2010/01/tahini-sauce/
What I did:
- Food processors are great.
- Put a bunch of garlic (like really a lot) and cilantro in the food processor and processed away
- Then added some sour cream, yogurt, lemon juice, salt, and sesame oil. Processed.
- Nope, didn’t measure any of it.
Throwin’ Shit together
Garlic/Cilantro Sauce with Sesame Oil
The sauce is really not bad. It could use more fat though… I feel like the tahini would have provided this.
Ready to cook!
Ready to Saute
The Insides
Saute’in
The Whole Package
And… Para Llevar! Just like it’s supposed to be…
So remember when I said that I was tired when I went shopping? Yeah, I also didn’t have the energy to look for Pita Bread (what DID you buy Sarah? you ask. Chicken, beer, tea and bubbly water – clearly.) so I used a tortilla, but that actually worked pretty well except it didn’t hold in the sauces that well and was a little small.
I also put cabbage, cilantro, and tomato in my wrap, cause that’s what I had. I’m trying to remember what they did in Spain, but I can’t quite remember. I know there was cabbage, and carrot, and corn, and olives, and other stuff, but I can’t remember what.
All in all I thought it was pretty darn good. The chicken was definitely good. The sauce was too garlicky, but that’s just my bad. I think having the tahini sauce really would have made it delicious. I need to get me some of that tahini stuff.
But yeah, I’m pretty happy with how it came out – especially considering no shawarma spit. 🙂
Now all I need is a Fanta Naranja to go with it…
Galen and Chloe
Shawarma they say, what a fun meal to cook that would be, and normally yes they would be right. But what if you are a household on an elimination diet? Vegan Turkish food…. is it even possible? The Answer: Yes! Homemade falafel, coconut tzatziki, and gluten free flatbread. Not quite shawarma, but not bad 🙂
Step 1: The Centerpiece: Falafel.
The falafel players: chickpeas, cilantro, parsley, red onion, garlic, and cashews.
Blended and formed, into the oven they go!
Step 2: As the Falafel Bake, Flatbread Time!
Nice firm flatbread dough, take that stupid gluten!
Rounded and ready for a flatnin’.
Step 3: Fry Em and Dice Em Up.
A little olive oil, and a cast iron skillet.
Chopped tomatoes, cucumber, yellow bell pepper, red onion and cabbage, cilantro and parsley.
Along with an agave, tapatio buffalo sauce, and a coconut yogurt tzatziki.
Step 4: Put It All Together!
All the fixin’s topped with both sauces.
And a second one just for good measure 😉
So the most important question, did it taste good?
Well…..it’s a little hard to remember…..
A good night…
….is a good night.
Overall a really wonderful meal, the falafel was warm and spicy with the buffalo sauce kick. The tzatziki had a unique coconut quality that matched really well with the dill. And the flatbread, was the best gluten free baking experience I’ve ever had. It was crispy yet could hold enough shape to fold around the falafel and other toppings.
Albin and Jocie
Albin and I started our Shawarma around 3:00pm this afternoon, while it was SNOWING at our house!!
Snow October 18th!
We used a blade steak that Albin’s mamma had given us from the Health Hero Farm. We chopped up the steak into thin strips and mixed it with a yogurty-nutmeg-cinnamon marinade. Interesting you might say. Albin said “This recipe is weird”.
Blade Steak
Other Key Players
Whisking It All Together
The Marinade
During the afternoon, we also prepped the tahini sauce in the blender. Our sauce turned out to be very garlicky too.
Blending the Tahini Sauce
The Toppings
Fast forward a few hours (the porch furniture was put into storage, the bookshelf reorganized, a puzzle started, and many chapters of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince audiobook played), we got our Shawarma on. We fried up the marinaded steak, chopped up lots of cucumber, slathered on the tahini sauce, added a dollop of yogurt, and wrapped it all in a rice flour tortilla made by “Food for Life”.
Frying Up The Steak
Putting it all together
The first bite!
The Shawarma experience was quite the messy one. (The search for a gluten free wrap that does not crumble continues!) The flavors from the marinade steak mixed well with the tahini sauce (I only wish I had added a little less garlic). All and all, a good meal and one that forced us outside our normal flavor combinations.
Since it was our first Shawarma, we have decided to compare our shawarma to that at Alibaba’s Kebob Shop on Main St. We’ll let you know how it goes!
P.S. We added our recipes for Beef Shawarma and Tahini Sauce to the index page if you ever want to try them.
The Weekly Cook-Off 