Recipe - Fakeaway - Doner Kebab with Chilli Sauce

 

Ok, so now I am officially 'Best Wife Ever'.  A title which, after last night, is rightfully mine, and can never, ever be taken away from me.  I made... Doner Kebab... in my kitchen.  I saw the recipe for this on a Facebook page I follow called 'Feed your family for about £20 a week'.  They have some great recipes for frugal and budget eating, and this was one that piqued Mr G's interest. I'm no longer a huge lamb Doner fan, I find it too fatty and greasy. I'm the chicken Doner fan. Nevertheless, anything to please my lovely hubby.  And save a heck of a lot of money into the bargain!

For the 'kebab' meat:

500g lamb mince

1 tsp Salt (original recipe, I used less, but would include the full amount next time)

1 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper

1 1/2 tsp Garlic powder

1 tsp Pepper

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Dried mixed herbs

I put all the ingredients into the processor and blitzed it until it was all combined.  Then I shaped it into a lump.  A lump, is the best word I can use to describe it.  Lol.  I'd preheated my slow cooker to High, and in went the lamb lump.  This took 4 hours to cook on High* (6 if you cook Low).  I then made my chilli sauce and red cabbage.

Chilli Sauce:

1/2 tin of chopped tomatoes

1/2 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1 1/2 tsp mint sauce

25 ml vinegar

2 hot red chillies, seeds and all

1/3 tube tomato purée

Into the food processor, blitz until only little pieces of the onions, garlic and chilli remain.  You can make it hotter or omit chilli seeds to tone down the heat.

 

 

  

When the meat was cooked, I sliced it thinly and assembled the kebabs.  First I heated the naan bread, then added iceberg lettuce, sliced onions, tomatoes, the meat, red cabbage (recipe for this is with the Chicken Doner fakeaway) and then the chilli sauce.  Voila! 

 

Observations.  

• The meat was drier and less fatty than a takeaway kebab.  Obviously the less fatty is good, the drier not so...  *After speaking to a friend on Facebook, she told me that it was being debated on a slow cooking group as to whether this should be wrapped in foil as it cooked.  That the meat would remain moist, but the downside would be that all that fat (and there was a lot that came out!) would remain within the meat.  As a result, I cooked the meat for 2 and a half hours 'naked' and for the last hour and a half, I wrapped it in foil.  It wasn't unbearably dry, don't get me wrong.  The addition of salad and chilli sauce, that moistened it up a lot.  However, next time I will wrap the lump in tin foil as it cooks for the duration and then see what the lesser of the two evils is.  

• The meat tasted like kebab meat, but didn't have the smooth texture, it was more like a burger.  My daughter commented that it tasted authentic but healthier.  Mr G thought the taste was 'spot on', he liked the texture of it, but still prefers the texture of the real thing.  Mr G particularly liked that he could pick the whole thing up and eat it and there was no fat or grease dripping out of it (many a T Shirt has been ruined by this takeaway!).  I ate and enjoyed mine, but as I said previously, I'm not a huge fan of lamb Doner anyway.  Another bonus is knowing precisely what went into it?  Every scrap was eaten, and on the whole really enjoyed so I think it can be marked as another fakeaway success.  Would I make it again? Definitely, I think Mr G will be wanting it at least once a week!  

• I used 500g of lamb mince and this made three kebabs.  I'd bought this amount of lamb with the intention of using it for three adults and one teen girl.  It actually did two adults and one teen girl, and it has to be said that there wasn't loads of meat, as there would be in its takeaway counterpart.  The next time I make it, I would be inclined to double up on the recipe (I have a double slow cooker) and then freeze any leftovers.  This, of course, is a joke.  Leftovers?  In this house?  Please.

• Even doubling up the meat, to make four hefty, meat loaded kebabs for four adults, the cost of the naan bread (which falls if you make your own!), the salad, and the chilli sauce ingredients, and assuming that you have a decent basic spice cupboard which contains salt, pepper, garlic, cayenne and dried herbs! - I estimate that this could be made for about £12, which is about the cost of two kebabs from a takeaway.  So - not the cheapest of fakeaways, but if this is your thing?  It's not a bad little recipe.  Do check out their Facebook page 'Feed your family for about £20 a week' for other great ideas. 

To finish off, I see that over the last few weeks, my other fakeaway recipes have been my highest read posts, so it seems that a lot of people are belt-tightening?   Have you had any good results with fakeaways?  Let me know in the comments (with a link to a blog post if you have one) and I'll check it out :-)

M x