A warm hug from shawarma

There are two kinds of people in this world — those who love shawarma and those who don’t. I haven’t met too many who belong to the latter category.

It’s not one of those dishes that you boast about loving but there are so many memories associated with it that no matter how many bad shawarmas I’ve had, it’ll always hold a special place in my heart.

If my memory serves me right, the first time I had shawarma was in Dubai. I had gone there to visit my uncle and we went to an Arabic restaurant. Now when I think about it, I guess I had the best introduction to the dish. But I don’t remember too much about it.

All I remember is the waiters bringing a big plate of food which had shredded chicken, a bunch of finely cut vegetables, tahini sauce (which I didn’t know was a big deal as a teenager) and the softest roti, which I later learnt was pita bread. It was a do-it-yourself kind of dish, which was later introduced to me as a shawarma plate.

I completely forgot about the dish and years later, when my boarding school took us to an amusement park, my friends suggested that we get shawarma.

Being the enthusiastic person that I was, I was excited to try the dish.

I should probably give the backstory here — my vision is quite bad and without glasses, I can only make out certain colours and identify only smudged objects. The world of contact lenses weren’t an option for my 16-year-old self.

We were at the amusement park which had water activities and wearing your glasses wasn’t an option, and I didn’t have pockets to carry the glasses. Long story short, I walked around the entire amusement park without glasses aided by kindness of my friends.

We finally reached the shawarma counter and all I could see was a long stick and an upside-down dull-coloured cotton candy-like hard substance hanging. The person was chopping pieces from it and we finally got the roll. I fell in love with it but all the while, I kept trying to draw a picture of what it is that was being grilled. I had no idea what the ingredients were and I was too shy to ask my friends what it was (the teenager didn’t want to admit I didn’t know things).

Eventually, I learnt that it’s pieces of chicken that’s put on a skewer and slow-grilled that makes shawarma what it is.

Over the years, shawarma has become a go-to snack for various occasions. Be it as a snack during the drinking nights or one of those days you just don’t feel like cooking, the humble roll has become comfort food. And of course, the dish isn’t complete without the pickled chilli and carrots to go with it.

Chicken Shawarma

Ingredients

Boneless chicken, 1 cup

Oil, 4 tbsp

Tahini, 1 cup

Cardamom powder, 1 tbsp

Lemon juice, 1 tbsp

Tomato, 2 sliced

Onions, 2 sliced

Carrot, 1 juliennes

Garlic, 1/4 cup

Coriander leaves, 2 tbsp chopped

Lettuce, 2 cups shredded

Allspice, 2 tbsp

Vinegar, 1 tbsp

Black pepper, 1 tbsp

Plain Greek yoghurt, 1 cup

Salt as per taste

Pita bread

Method

Marinate the chicken overnight with yoghurt, 2 tbsp of oil, mixed spiced, salt, cardamom, black pepper and vinegar.

In a bowl, make the sauce. You’ll need yoghurt, lemon juice, oil, coriander leaves, salt and black pepper. Mix them well and keep it aside.

Pre-heat the oven at 175-degree Celsius. Bake the marinated chicken (with the remaining marinade) for 35 to 40 minutes. Make sure it’s covered.

Once done, uncover the chicken and cook it for 15 minutes until you notice that chicken has become golden brown.

Transfer it to a plate and cut it into slices. Now it’s time to assemble. Take the pita bread, place the sliced chicken, carrot, lettuce, onions and tomato. Roll it up and serve with tahini sauce.