Shawarma secrets. Shawarma: the composition of shawarma, the harm of shawarma, the recipe for making homemade shawarma

Everyone knows this dish from oriental cuisine. At least once, everyone bought shawarma in tents. There are several varieties of shawarma - meat with vegetables in pita or meat with vegetables in thin pita bread. The first option seems more familiar to someone, someone loves exclusively the second.

It is believed that the real shawarma, a traditional Turkish dish, is deep-fried lamb mixed with salads, wrapped in pita.But outside the eastern countries, lamb is not so often used as food, so for shawarma you can take meat of other varieties - chicken, pork, veal, turkey, beef. It all depends on your personal preferences. Of course, in Eastern countries they choose meat only in accordance with traditions, and they cook this dish a little differently than we are used to, but in general, the technologies are approximately the same.

Cooking shawarma at home is not difficult at all, we hope our tips and recipe will help you.

Filling for shawarma

A few cooking secrets

Preparation of filling sauces

We roll shawarma from pita bread

Recipe for homemade shawarma in pita bread

Ingredients:

Shawarma is an oriental dish of flatbread stuffed with lamb, beef or poultry meat with spices, sauces and fresh vegetable salad. Instead of Arabic flatbread, pita, shawarma sellers have learned how to wrap the filling in Armenian bread - lavash.

Meat for shawarma take different things: from lamb to turkey. But the principle of cooking is the same everywhere: the meat is cut into fillets, lightly beaten and marinated for 12 hours. In the classics, meat is cooked over an open fire, but at home, you can use a dry frying pan with a thick bottom.

The secret of the juiciness of the shawarma is an orange, which is hung over the meat on a vertical skewer. Orange juice drains and evenly soaks all the meat. At home, on a horizontal skewer, you can try pouring molten lard on the meat.
It is necessary to pre-marinate the meat. Pork - in white wine, apple or wine vinegar, with spices and black peppercorns. Beef - in lemon vinegar and red wine, with onions. Chicken - in mayonnaise.

Universal marinade: ground mixture for meat (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, spicy zaatar, coriander, cammun, black pepper) + red vinegar for meat + olive oil + parsley. Whip everything up and pour over the meat. In restaurants, layers of meat are strung on a vertical skewer, covered with lamb fat on top, at home you can first cut the meat into long pieces and fry in a very hot pan along with lamb fat (take very little fat).

Bread they also take different ones, not only pita. In Lebanon, for example, they use thin bread, wrapping meat in it.

Pita it is necessary to use only fresh, because. the very next day you won’t be able to roll up the shawarma - the pita bread will break and tear, and as a result, everything will crawl out. you can buy pita bread and immediately freeze it, rolling it into a tube, for two servings you will need 2 sheets of pita bread).

For shawarma filling street vendors use cabbage with onions, sprinkled with ketchup and mayonnaise. But after all, at home we make shawarma for ourselves, so we add whatever we like. The easiest recipe - instead of cabbage, put Korean carrots in shawarma, and add sauce instead of ketchup and mayonnaise. It will be delicious if you crumble pickled cucumber, hard cheese, boiled or fried potatoes. And even better - to emphasize the taste of meat with original sauces. For example, Georgian plum "tkemali" or sweet and sour Chinese sauce.
When preparing shawarma, cut the tomato into thin slices. a small cucumber in thin circles, you can take a pickled cucumber, but this is not for everyone. chop the cabbage as thin as possible - you will need 2 handfuls, grate 2 small carrots on a coarse grater.
If ketchup and mayonnaise are thick, then you should try not to add too much of them - when shawarma is heated in the microwave, it can “leak”.

Classic sauce

We take 1l. refined vegetable oil (you can use any as long as it does not smell), 2 eggs, 10-11 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp. a spoonful of salt.
Beat eggs with salt in a mixer. Then crushed or grated garlic is added there. And then slowly pour in the oil. As he said, if you pour a lot, it will turn out liquid, like water. That's all!!! If you want something special, you can add either a slice of lemon, or a little bit of herbs or very little vinegar. And then pour a large glass of water, preferably warm. If you like spicy, then just a little red pepper and a pinch of turmeric.

How to wrap shawarma

We spread the cabbage and carrots. on top we put finely chopped and mixed meat in a pan with the same oil (sprinkle with chopped herbs). put the tomato slices and cucumber slices on the meat. in conclusion, pour over ketchup and gently but tightly roll up the shawarma. then put in a bag and heat for 50-60 seconds in the microwave. You can use the following additives to shawarma:
1. For 1 tablespoon of tehina paste (sesame seed paste) - juice of 1 lemon, beat everything well. Very finely chop green onions, parsley, a little cilantro, spicy za'atar, green hot peppers, mix with the resulting sauce, salt and add quite a bit of garlic to taste.
2. Finely dice the cucumber pulp (cut the skins), chop the mint and garlic, mix everything and pour in thick sour milk, salt.
3. Pickled onions are good in shawarma.
4. Mayonnaise is also possible, we are used to it, and there is a place for it in Arab cuisine, especially in Lebanese and Syrian.

Shawarma arabian

800 gr. meat (low-fat lamb or veal, you can also use turkey or chicken fillet); 1 cup 5% vinegar (measuring cup = 230 ml) 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon paprika; 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg; cardamom on the tip of a knife; 1 tablespoon minced garlic (approximately 3-4 large cloves) salt to taste.
for the sauce:
1 glass of thin sour cream; 1/4 cup chopped green onions; 2-3 cloves of garlic; a pinch of curry; small pickled cucumber; vegetable oil

Cut the meat into thin steaks and soak overnight in a marinade made from vinegar, spices and garlic (all ingredients listed before the words "for the sauce"). Then remove the steaks from the marinade, dry them slightly and fry over high heat in a small amount of vegetable oil until half cooked. The meat should be covered with a beautiful brown crust. Cool slightly, cut the steaks into strips lengthwise to get even oblong pieces. Place the meat in an ovenproof dish and cover with foil. Put the container with the meat in the oven, preheated to 180 degrees C, for 20 minutes, after 20 minutes. Remove the foil and keep in the oven for another 10 minutes. in an open container.
Mix sour cream with crushed garlic, finely chopped green onions and pickled cucumbers, add spices and leave to brew for at least 20 minutes. Cut the pitta in half, put slices of fresh cucumber and tomato inside, put the meat filling on them and pour everything generously with sour cream sauce.

Palestinian shawarma (from poultry meat)

300-400 g of chicken meat, 400 grams of medium-fat sour cream
100-150 grams of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and onions, a sprig or two fresh dill
100 ml of mayonnaise, 100 ml of kefir, 20 cloves of garlic (half for meat, half for sauce), 1 lemon.
Spices: black and red pepper at least, olive oil, grape vinegar.
Two lavash.

Finely chop the chicken meat and sprinkle with spices: black pepper, red pepper, a little ground nutmeg and cardamom, you can (to taste) add adjika, dried dill, chili, ginger, some hot sauces - tabasco or wasabi (be careful with the amount ). Add a little vinegar, crushed garlic and a little olive oil. Salt to taste. Mix thoroughly, put under the press (cover with a plate and oppression from above) for 20-30 minutes.
While the meat is saturated with aroma, prepare the vegetables and sauce.

Vegetables: finely chop the onion, cucumbers, tomatoes, pepper (which is a vegetable), mix, add black pepper (which is a spice), salt. You can pour vinegar and pickle a little. You can add fried zucchini or eggplant.
Sauce: take olive mayonnaise and fatty kefir. Continuously stirring yogurt, add mayonnaise slowly, then crushed garlic, finely chopped fresh dill, squeeze the juice from one lemon. Mix very thoroughly. I also tried adding pre-melted cheese: it turns out an interesting taste.
We return to the meat. Pour the resulting workpiece into a pan, level it, pour sour cream so that the meat does not show. Simmer over low heat until the sour cream acquires a dense, like yogurt, consistency and partially boils away. After that, mix it thoroughly with the meat and turn on the fire to full, while stirring continuously so that nothing burns. When the meat is well fried (to redness), turn off the fire, mix the meat with vegetables, pour over the sauce, wrap in pita bread and eat until it has cooled down, drinking good beer.
The dish is made 40-50 minutes.

European style shawarma

Chicken or chicken (legs can be), 3 onions, sweet peppers 2-3 pieces (preferably ripe, yellow, thick-walled), tomatoes - 2-3 pieces, mayonnaise
Pickled cucumbers - 2-3 pieces.
Armenian lavash (thin) 4-5 sheets.

Separate the chicken meat from the bones, cut into small cubes and fry in butter. Sweet pepper and onion cut into small cubes and fry in butter. Then mix everything, add ground black pepper, basil and suneli hops to your taste. Fry until done.
Unfold a sheet of Armenian lavash, put sliced ​​​​tomatoes in the middle (no more than three circles per 1 lavash).
Lay the pickled cucumbers cut into slices on the tomatoes. Put 2-4 tablespoons of cooked chicken meat with pepper on top, lightly grease everything with mayonnaise and wrap it in a roll, bending the edges. You can make several "rolls" at once, or you can roll them up during the meal, periodically heating the chicken meat. Can be served without garnish with fresh vegetables. It goes well with a salad of fresh young cabbage (finely chopped, mashed and seasoned with mayonnaise), as well as fried zucchini.

Vegetarian Shawarma

onions, carrots, white cabbage, dill, asparagus beans, vegetable oil, spices, Armenian lavash.

Onion cut into half rings, fry. Grate carrots, fry. Chop cabbage, add salt, sugar, apple cider vinegar, spices. Green beans - fry. Dill - finely chopped. Mix all.
Put a portion of the mixture on pita bread, pour over with ketchup and mayonnaise, wrap.

Many of us are very fond of shawarma and buy it at the first kiosk that comes across, which may not be very beneficial for our health. Shawarma, cooked at home, will be not only tasty, but also healthy. In this article, we will share several recipes for preparing this dish with our own hands from quality products.

Perhaps it is no secret to anyone that shawarma came to us from the East. Shawarma is a national dish in Turkey, where it is fried meat with various vegetable salads. You can wrap any meat of your choice in pita bread. In Turkey, it is customary to wrap lamb, and the way of preparing the national dish is slightly different from the one we are used to.

The preparation of this dish is not very difficult and does not take much time, and we will try to help you with this.

Of course, the main ingredient is meat, in addition, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, herbs, mushrooms, canned corn and more are added. You can wrap whatever your heart desires in pita bread.

There are also gourmets who, apart from meat and sauce, add nothing else. Of course, this is a matter of taste. To give a spicy taste, various seasonings are added to the dish.

Also, if desired, add sour cream or cheese, mayonnaise and other sauces. If you like greens, you can also add it, for example, lettuce, dill, green onions, cilantro.

When cooking shawarma at home with your own hands, it is up to you to decide which recipe to choose, how many ingredients will be included in the dish, and what you want to end up with.

What is the secret of cooking?

Carefully inspect the pita bread that you purchased for making homemade shawarma. Check out the date of manufacture. Lavash that has begun to dry cannot be used for this dish, it simply cannot be wrapped in the filling.

Before cooking shawarma at home, you must marinate the meat in advance. In order for shawarma to resemble a street (professional) version, it is necessary to fry the meat according to certain requirements. For this we need cast iron.

Before putting the meat in the pan, blot it with a paper towel so that there is no excess water. Oil is not used when frying, make sure that the meat does not burn. After you have wrapped the filling in pita bread, if possible, lightly fry the dish in a dry cast-iron frying pan.

Sauces for the dish

The most suitable sauces in this case are garlic and spicy. There is no difficulty in their preparation. To prepare garlic sauce, we need sour cream, garlic, herbs and canned cucumber. To prepare a hot sauce, we need to take tomato paste, parsley, sunflower oil, lime juice.

For cooking, you need to chop everything and add as much sauce to the shawarma as your heart desires. In Turkey, it is customary to use several sauces in one dish at once. Or choose the one that you will definitely like.

If you want the shawarma to turn out at home, like the professionals, you need to learn how to roll it correctly, then the sauce will not leak from it.

To do this, lay pita bread on the table and sprinkle a little lemon juice.

Spread pita bread with sauce or several at once. We place the filling, put the meat on top of the vegetables, add the sauce. We wrap the filling in pita bread.

We suggest you familiarize yourself with several recipes for homemade shawarma. We hope you find something interesting.

Ingredients:

• fresh lavash;
• 90 g fresh cabbage;
• 200 g of veal;
• ketchup to taste;
• a head of garlic;
• dill;
• parsley;
• 100 g homemade sour cream;
• 30 g carrots;
• sunflower oil;
• vinegar, salt, sugar, spices.

Cooking method

Finely chop the cabbage, cut the carrot into small slices. Cut the dill and parsley. We mix everything with the addition of oil.

We cut the veal into cubes.

Let's start preparing the sauce for the dish. For the sauce, we mix sour cream, ketchup, chopped garlic. Mix thoroughly and proceed to dressing.

We spread the pita bread, grease it with mayonnaise, put the meat, lettuce, add the sauce and roll the pita bread.

Shawarma recipe at home

Cooking Ingredients:

• fresh lavash;
• 3 tomatoes;
• onion greens;
• canned cucumber;
• soy sauce;
• 200 g pork;
• spices to taste;
• butter, homemade sour cream, mayonnaise, parsley, dill, cilantro.

Cooking method

Marinate the meat in a sauce with vegetable oil. One hour will be enough for it to marinate. Cut it into small cubes, fry until golden brown. To prepare the sauce, you need sour cream and mayonnaise, add chopped garlic.

Canned cucumber and tomato cut into cubes. We spread the pita bread, put slices of fried meat and prepared salad on it. We season everything with mayonnaise, wrap pita bread. The dish is ready to eat. You can choose any sauce you like.

We will need:

• 500 g chicken fillet;
• carrot;
• fresh lavash;
• homemade sour cream;
• 2 tomatoes;
• cabbage;
• garlic;
• fat-free mayonnaise;
• canned cucumber.

Cooking method

Cook chicken over low heat. Leave to cool completely, cut into small pieces. We chop the cabbage, cut the tomatoes into cubes, chop the carrots into small strips, cut the cucumber.

For the sauce, we need sour cream, mayonnaise, chopped garlic.

We spread the pita bread, grease it with the prepared sauce. We put pieces of meat, salad on it and season with sauce. We wrap the filling in pita bread. Shawarma is ready to eat.

Required Ingredients:

• fat-free mayonnaise;
• 1 cucumber;
• 1 tomato;
• 200 g pork;
• dill, parsley, basil;
• 80 g carrots;
• fresh lavash.

Cooking method

This shawarma is cooked in a hurry, even a beginner can handle it, so you can safely start cooking.

Cucumber and tomato cut into cubes, three cheese. Pork cut into cubes, fry until golden brown.

We put carrots, cooked salad on pita bread and season everything with sauce. We lay out the fried pieces of pork, again grease with mayonnaise. We add cheese. We roll the filling into pita bread. The dish is ready to eat.

For cooking we need:

• 3 potatoes;
• fat-free mayonnaise;
• 300 g fresh cabbage;
• 400 g pork;
• fresh lavash;
• bulb;
• greenery;
• salt, pepper, spices.

Cooking method

Pork cut into cubes, fry in a pan until golden brown. Add chopped onion.

Cut the potatoes into strips and add it to the meat. We cut the cabbage.

Lubricate pita bread with mayonnaise, lay out potatoes with meat. Add cabbage and pour sauce over everything.

We wrap the filling in pita bread, fry the cooked shawarma in a heated pan without sunflower oil. The dish is ready to eat.

Bon appetit!

Everyone at least once in their life tried a dish called "shawarma". It is sold on the streets, in small eateries and cafes. Shawarma can also be prepared at home. It is not so difficult. But is this dish useful? What is in shawarma? What products are they made from? Let's try to deal with these questions, and at the same time we will learn how to cook shawarma on our own.

What is shawarma

Many have tried, but not everyone thought about what is included in the shawarma. So what is it? Shawarma is an oriental dish with meat wrapped in thin pita bread with spices, fresh vegetables and sauces. Traditionally, meat for this snack is cooked on special equipment.

This is a grill in the form of a vertical skewer, along which burners are placed. As the meat is fried, it is cut into a thin layer and used in the dish. When cooked correctly, it turns out tender and tasty.

What kind of meat is used

There are a lot of recipes for this dish. The composition of shawarma can include any meat. For cooking, you can take lamb, pork, beef, chicken or turkey. In Muslim countries (Turkey, Libya) they usually use lamb or This corresponds to their traditions and culinary preferences.

In Israel, they prefer chicken or turkey meat. In Russia, you can find several dozen cooking recipes. In our country, different types and varieties of meat are used.

Sauces

The composition of shawarma, in addition to the main component - meat, also includes sauces. They give the dish a spicy and original taste. The simplest version of the sauce is ketchup or mayonnaise. But to make the shawarma more expressive, you should use spices and seasonings.

According to the classic recipe, this dish should be very spicy. In addition to hot pepper, turmeric, cumin and some other seasonings are added to the sauce if desired. Greens give a special taste to shawarma. There must be a lot of it. These are parsley, dill, cilantro and other herbs. All these ingredients can be combined with the sauce and added to the dish.

Types of shawarma

The composition of shawarma in pita bread may be different. You can cook In this case, it will only contain vegetables, herbs, cheese and sauce. Some people cook this dish with semi-finished products. For this, sausages or sausages are used as the main ingredient.

They are cut into pieces and sauce and vegetables are added. There are options for cooking shawarma with canned fish, but this recipe is very far from the original. Traditionally, various types of meat are used as the main component. But if you are preparing this dish for yourself, then you can add any ingredients to your taste in the composition of shawarma in pita bread.

Benefit and harm

Is there any benefit to eating shawarma? This question cannot be answered unambiguously. It all depends on what is included in the shawarma in pita bread. This food can be attributed to fast food, which is not considered healthy. But if you cook shawarma without meat, ketchup and mayonnaise, only with vegetables and herbs, then the body will be saturated with a certain dose of vitamins.

But even a classic dish with all the ingredients will be preferable to a hamburger or a hot dog. Shawarma should not be abused by those who have problems with the gastrointestinal tract, and those who are obese. And we must always remember that such food should not be everyday.

Shawarma garlic sauce

This dish can be classified as fast. In such cases, use ready-made sauces in or ketchup. But if you want to give the dish a piquant, unique taste, then it is better to cook them yourself. This garlic sauce can be used not only in shawarma. It is served with chicken wings and grilled meat delicacies. Take 4 large spoons of sour cream, mayonnaise and kefir, 6 medium cloves of garlic, black and red ground pepper and any spices you wish. The process of making the sauce is very simple. Garlic must be crushed in any way (garlic press or with a grater). Then we mix all the ingredients so that the spices are evenly distributed in the liquid mass. Garlic sauce, with which shawarma will become more delicious, is ready.

Shawarma with chicken

No one will argue that food cooked at home is safer and tastier. In addition, many dishes are prepared very simply. The composition of chicken shawarma is the minimum set of available products. You will need: thin pita bread, 400 grams of chicken fillet, one large carrot, 200 grams of fresh cabbage (you can take Peking cabbage), 200 milliliters of mayonnaise, 200 milliliters of ketchup and a little mustard (optional). Let's start with the preparation of chicken meat. It must be boiled and cut into thin strips. Three carrots on a fine grater and add salt, spices, vegetable oil and garlic to it.

Shred the cabbage and season it with lemon juice or vinegar and vegetable oil. All the ingredients are ready, it remains only to cut the pita bread into portions so that it is convenient to wrap the filling in it. We lay out the sheet on the table and lightly grease it with ketchup and mayonnaise. Then we put the cabbage, and on top of it the meat. Next, add carrots and pour a little mayonnaise. We turn the pita bread with the filling in the form of an envelope. Shawarma is ready. It remains only to fry it on each side in a pan or warm it in the oven.

Shawarma with pork

As already mentioned, any type of meat can be used to prepare this dish. Offered with pork. Take thin pita bread, two fresh tomatoes, 300 grams of pork, which must first be fried or baked in the oven, two cucumbers, 100 grams of cheese (optional), a small head of Chinese or white cabbage, 3 peeled garlic cloves, 3 tablespoons of natural yogurt, three spoons of sour cream, three tablespoons of mayonnaise, salt, spices, herbs. First, let's prepare the sauce.

To do this, mix all the liquid ingredients (sour cream, mayonnaise and yogurt). Then add chopped garlic, chopped herbs, salt and spices to this mass. You can use any herbs and spices you want. Cut meat and vegetables into strips or any shape. Three cheese on a grater and mix it with meat. Now let's move on to the formation of shawarma. Lubricate pita bread with sauce and spread the filling on it. After that, add more sauce at your discretion and fold the pita bread in the form of an envelope. Then we fry the shawarma in a pan, bake in the oven, heat it in the microwave or on the air grill. You can choose any processing option. It is better to eat this dish hot or warm.

Traditionally, the stuffing for shawarma is wrapped in pita, but it is successfully replaced by Armenian thin lavash, which must be fresh. To improve the taste of the dish, you need to properly cook the meat. It is cut into fillets and lightly beaten off. Then it is better to marinate the meat. Pork is marinated in white wine, apple or wine vinegar. Spices are also added (peppercorns, bay leaf). Red wine, lemon vinegar, onions and spices are used to prepare beef. Chicken meat is best marinated in mayonnaise. It is better to fry meat for shawarma over an open fire, but at home you can use a dry frying pan or air grill.

Shawarma filling may be different. To speed up the process, you can use ready-made Korean carrots. Pickled cucumber, cut into thin strips, gives an unusual taste to the dish. Sauce is special. You can use ready-made: Georgian "tkemali" or sweet and sour Chinese. Be careful not to overdo the sauce as it may leak when heated.

The composition of shawarma in grams cannot be accurately determined. Everything is done by eye and depends on For lovers of spicy food, you can add more sauce and hot spices. Someone likes more vegetables and herbs, while someone gives the palm to meat products. By the way, greens play a big role in this dish and there should be a lot of it. Cook with pleasure and delight your loved ones with delicious and healthy dishes!

In recent years, the wise and mysterious East has made a kind of culinary revolution. Quietly and confidently, without much effort and investment, he uses his version of a hamburger - shawarma. It got to the point that the eternal heir to the British throne - Prince Charles organized and led a whole movement for the preservation, which is confidently being replaced on the streets and in restaurants in England by shawarma.

Bad reputation

We offer you excerpts from the book by F. Ruchaevsky “Modern Israeli Cooking. Jewish menu of the 21st century. AST Publishing House, 2010

Is there real shawarma? It happens ... shawarma!

There are many disputes between Muscovites and Petersburgers about how to call this culinary product - shawarma or shawarma, which is probably not important, although I myself explain this discrepancy by the peculiarities of translation from various languages. For example, in Hebrew, in the middle of the word for shawarma, there is the letter “vav”, which can also be read as “u”, which is why there was a discrepancy. But since shavarma nevertheless came to Russia from Turkey, then, perhaps, the name reflects the Turkic linguistic influence.

I call this dish “shawarma”, as is customary in Israel.

History of the dish

In Damascus, minced meat, marinated in a special way, and then fried, dressed with salad and sauce. In the Middle Ages, Damascus fell under Turkish rule, sharing the fate of a large part of the civilized world, as well as the Balkan countries, Greece, Palestine and many other countries.

Initially, shawarma was made from veal and lamb. And about fifteen or twenty years ago, they also began to make it from chicken - this was already a Turkish innovation in the traditional recipe. Thanks to the same Turks, shavarma turned from a local dish into an international one.

Therefore, it is not surprising that for the first time I met “shawarma” in the late 80s in Uzbekistan, when shuttle traders from Turkey brought the first devices for cooking this rather famous oriental dish. However, they brought the idea and the devices, but they failed to root the real technology and the taste of this dish.

It is possible that shawarma was originally prepared by specialists according to the rules, but then everything switched to pseudo-shawarma. When I visit different cities, I try to try shawarma, but I have never seen it cooked correctly, although I do not insist on the ultimate truth, perhaps I have not yet been to those places where shawarma is made according to the rules.

Looking for the original source

To be honest, when I first came to Turkey and Greece, the first thing I decided to do was pay tribute to shawarma. So to speak, taste from the source. when I was served rather dry and large pieces of lamb in a pita. In my knowledge of this dish, it didn’t look like shavarma .. In Turkey, everything was different: the flatbread with meat oozed taste, and the aroma of spices immediately made it clear that this was real shavarma.

How to do it right?

"Shawarma" is meat strung on a needle and cooked by rotating this needle between heat sources (gas or electric, and ideally between coals). Also, in the absence of an apparatus, shawarma can be cooked on a stove or pan. Two components of the taste of shawarma: properly selected, chopped and strung meat and spices.

Meat. Varieties and preferences

Shawarma can be prepared from almost any meat (of course, suitable for technological properties), but the ideal meat, and therefore the most common, is turkey meat (although it is also prepared from turkeys, but this already worsens the quality of the dish).

The meat is removed from the thigh of the bird. Then it is molded as thin as possible and sprinkled with spices. Then it is strung on a needle using a special overlapping technology, very tightly, and mutton or goose fat is placed through a certain number of layers.

Also, shawarma is prepared from a similar part of chicken, from lamb and very rarely from veal (thin edge). In Russia, it is also prepared from pork, but in the east, for reasons known to all, this meat is not eaten.

Meat. Subtleties of stringing and cutting

Stringing a shawarma on a needle is also a very important and time-consuming process - it's not just putting pieces of meat on a skewer. The fact is that later, during the heat treatment process, with improper preparation of the needle, there will be very large losses of meat. And this, in turn, will make the sale unprofitable: raw materials are not quite cheap. And besides, with an incorrect and loose stringing of meat, it will warm up unevenly along the radius of the needle.

The meat, as it is ready, is cut with a very sharp knife in a very thin layer and placed in pits (we will talk about them later) with various salad and spice fillings or in lava (lavash).

Spices. The secret is not given out, but invented

The question of spices for shawarma is always open: spice recipes are kept secret and passed down from generation to generation. In my opinion, the taste and celebrity of shawarma depends on the composition of spices. There are not a lot of establishments where shavarma is sold, but the queues for a dish are far from everywhere. Usually, people go to certain places to eat shawarma.

I have a longtime friend, the owner of a shawarma dukhan, a native of Morocco, Solomon Cohen, who always answers my questions about spices:

I will give you so many shawarma spices that you will last for the rest of your days, but do not ask for the recipe for the mixture!

Personally, I picked up spices for almost a year and a half, until we came to the taste that we wanted and that our client likes. Of course, ready-made mixes for shawarma are also sold in retail chains, but not a single self-respecting cook will use them.

Spices. Mandatory composition

The basis for spices is turmeric, sweet paprika, then curry, cardamom, various types of peppers, howaych and bagarat are selected - oriental spices. I had to meet when black coffee or cinnamon was added to the mixture. So, here you can dare and find new sources of taste. Dried fruits and pistachios are often added to festive shawarmas, which gives the dish an original taste.

How to cook shawarma at home

If there is no apparatus for making shawarma, then I usually do this: I sprinkle whole pieces of meat with spices and bake in the oven.

I pass the cooled meat through a ditor-machine for cutting vegetables with a triple knife for shredding cabbage. Meat cut in this way, I fry in hot oil, sometimes with finely chopped onions in half rings.

Shavarma can be served not only in pita or pita bread, but also in portions. Shavarma is usually served with oriental spicy spices such as amba (mango and pepper chutney) and skhug (analogous to adjika).

It should be noted that serving cabbage salad and mayonnaise with ketchup with shawarma is the know-how of Russian catering. It has nothing to do with the tradition of making oriental shavarma!