Citizens, one of your beloved Leader’s favorite superhero movies is “The Avengers” – and if you saw it in the theaters and stayed all the way to the end, you’ll see a bonus scene where the heroic group is seen tiredly eating shawarma at a local joint in New York City.
Citizens, without further ado – here is MY version of this Middle Eastern classic recipe! 😀
Shawarma is a Levantine meat preparation, where lamb, chicken, turkey, beef, veal, or mixed meats are placed on a spit (commonly a vertical spit in restaurants), and may be grilled for as long as a day.
Shavings are cut off the block of meat for serving, and the remainder of the block of meat is kept heated on the rotating spit. Shawarma can be served on a plate (generally with accompaniments), or as a sandwich or wrap.
Shawarma is usually eaten with tabbouleh, fattoush, taboon bread, tomato, and cucumber. Toppings include tahini, hummus, pickled turnips, and amba sauce.
Similar dishes in the region include Turkish döner kebabs and Greek gyros.
Though grilling meat on a skewer has ancient roots in the Eastern Mediterranean with evidence from the Mycenaean Greek and Minoan periods, grilling a vertical spit of stacked meat slices and cutting it off as it cooks was developed in the 19th century in Ottoman Bursa current-day Turkey.
According to some sources, the Middle Eastern shawarma, Mexican tacos al pastor, and Greek gyros are all derived from the Turkish döner kebab, which was invented in Bursa in the 19th century by a cook named Hadji Iskender.
Citizens, I will show you the TRUE path to culinary glory, and this recipe makes it possible to enjoy a home version of this classic restaurant dish! My recipe has no compromises, but does include one eccentric (and optional) touch – the use of toum, the Arabic garlic condiment that is usually used with chicken shawarma – I like it with beef as well.
Battle on – The Generalissimo
PrintThe Hirshon Lebanese Beef Shawarma – شاورما
Ingredients
- Meat:
- 2 lbs of fatty beef cuts (roast cut/steak cuts/butter steak…)
- ***
- Marinade Ingredients:
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons liquid hickory smoke
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 3 beads mastic
- 1/2 teaspoon mahlab
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon caraway
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamon
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon Urfa Biber pepper flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon saffron (preferred) or turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed black peppercorn
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- ***
- Tahini Sauce Ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons of Tahini paste
- 1 cup of freshly squeezed Lemon Juice
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- a dash of Salt
- ***
- Optional Toum garlic sauce
- ***
- Sandwich Ingredients and condiments:
- 1 purple onion (thinly sliced)
- 1 to 2 roasted tomatoes (diced)
- 1 cucumber (thinly sliced)
- 1/2 teaspoon sumac
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley (finely chopped)
- pickle slices
- Pita bread or Lavash bread
Instructions
- Shawarma Marinade:
- Grind all whole spices to a powder in a spice grinder. Add the spices along with the lemon juice, liquid smoke, and apple cider vinegar in a blender for a couple of minutes. Don’t mix in the olive oil yet.
- Cut the beef into chunks of 4 inches long by no more than ⅔ inch in thickness.
- In a bowl, rub the meat with the marinade, sprinkle a bit of olive oil then rub again, cover and let marinate overnight in the fridge.
- Lay the marinated shawarma chunks on a panini or George Foreman grill and cook for 10-15 minutes on medium-high heat. Once cooked, shred the meat on a cutting board and serve hot.
- Grilling Shawarma Method 2: Oven Roasting:
- Lay the shawarma chunks in a Pyrex tray with a bit of marinade, cover the trap tightly with aluminum foil, then gently bake at 270-300F for 2 hours.
- Once cooked, shred the meat on a cutting board and serve hot. This roasting method will make the meat very tender and juicy and will almost fall apart.
- Preparing the Tahini Sauce:
- In a small bowl, whisk the the Tahini paste, crushed garlic, lemon juice and salt until you turn the paste into a sauce.
- Serving the Shawarma:
- Place about 4-6 ounces (to taste) of shredded shawarma in a pita bread well-slathered with toum garlic sauce. Along the diameter, sprinkle some Tahini sauce, combine sandwich ingredients and any other condiments you might like, such as Amba sauce, add. Roll and enjoy.
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