I lived in the Middle East a while growing up. No matter where you go, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Yemen there is some form of schawarma.
In most places its some form of lamb or beef or combo marinated in the family's personal spice/curry, and then prepped as thin disks of meat layered on a vertical spit, between periodic layers of fat to keep it lubricated, then grilled as a vertical rotisserie.
You'd serve thin sliced bits on a pita with some tahina (sesami sauce), some pickled vegetables or other, and a little simple salad mixture of parsley, cucumber, tomato and lemon juice.
Historically you would use wood fires to cook it, but these days its gas rotisseries. I'm considering replicating it by making up a nice middle eastern style curry, brining/injecting a leg of lamb, smoking it up to 140, then tossing it on a grill to toast it and cut as we go.
For the brine/marinade, I'm thinking of using:
cumin seed, coriander seed, cinnamon, clove, a bit of cayenne, fresh garlic, vinegar or lemon juice, black pepper, salt, and undecided about cardamom, turmeric and allspice and of course water.
Anyone think that this would be too 'granular' to inject? I'm still new to injection and not sure if you want to inject something that has undissolved spices.
So any opinions? I'll probably try it in the next week and if I like it, tune it a bit and bring version 2 along with some other things to a friend's Superbowl party.
In most places its some form of lamb or beef or combo marinated in the family's personal spice/curry, and then prepped as thin disks of meat layered on a vertical spit, between periodic layers of fat to keep it lubricated, then grilled as a vertical rotisserie.
You'd serve thin sliced bits on a pita with some tahina (sesami sauce), some pickled vegetables or other, and a little simple salad mixture of parsley, cucumber, tomato and lemon juice.
Historically you would use wood fires to cook it, but these days its gas rotisseries. I'm considering replicating it by making up a nice middle eastern style curry, brining/injecting a leg of lamb, smoking it up to 140, then tossing it on a grill to toast it and cut as we go.
For the brine/marinade, I'm thinking of using:
cumin seed, coriander seed, cinnamon, clove, a bit of cayenne, fresh garlic, vinegar or lemon juice, black pepper, salt, and undecided about cardamom, turmeric and allspice and of course water.
Anyone think that this would be too 'granular' to inject? I'm still new to injection and not sure if you want to inject something that has undissolved spices.
So any opinions? I'll probably try it in the next week and if I like it, tune it a bit and bring version 2 along with some other things to a friend's Superbowl party.
