Shawarma Al-Jazeera, a taste of my childhood


If you are one of the handful of people still reading my blog after couple of years of only occasional posts you might know I was born and lived most of my childhood in Saudi Arabia. I hope this would not offend any of my Saudi readers but I really hated the place. We used to live in Abha. It was at the time a small town high up in the mountains close to Yemen. The nature and weather were stunning but that is where the beauty stopped for me. I didn't like anything else about the place. I hated the lack of freedom compared to our summer holidays in Syria. I hated the constant feeling of being a foreigner, and as you might expect being a foreigner in Saudi Arabia is not fun.

The highlight of my life in Saudi was our frequent visits to Jeddah, Saudi's second city on the Red Sea. We used to visit frequently because of dad's work or to sort out some paperwork from the Syrian Consulate or simple to spend the weekend. Jeddah at the time was such a cool place for a young boy. It had an Ikea, massive shopping centres, smoked turkey meat, Levi's Jeans, Authentic Syrian Halawet el-Jeben, and above all Shawarma Al-Jazeera.

Shawerma Al-Jazeera or as became known later Shawerma Shaker Al-Jazeera is allegedly Jeddah's first Shawerma place. A small hole-in-the-wall places with massive beef shawarma skewer. It was perfectly normal for a guy to park his GMC Superban and come to the window to order 40 shawarma sandwiches. In fact most of the orders were in double figures and there was a constant stream of costumers from early evening to early hours in the morning. To cope with the demand the place adopteded a conveyor belt operation. You place an order in one window and the process start. One guy cuts the meat, another mixes it on the hot griddle with the vegetables, the third put the meat in the bread, the next down the line add the sauce and wrap the sandwiches and finally the last guy hands you over your food from a second window. This process continued non-stop, I kid you not. 

The Shawarma itself is nothing like the Syrian or Lebanese variety. The meat has a lot more "Arabic" taste with more spices adapted to the local palate. After the meat is shaved of the massive skewer it was cooked on a flat griddle with onions, parsley, tomatoes and chillies. The sandwiches were made with small white subs and served with nothing but tahini sauce and chilli sauce.



Here is my attempt to recreate a taste of my childhood:

Sirloin or similar tender cut of beef 350g
One onion
One large tomato
One or two green chillis
Garlic 3 cloves
Parsley two handfuls
Yoghurt one tbs
Tahini one tbs
Olive oil 2 tbs
Salt
Spices 1/2 tsp each (feel free to improvise) I use black pepper, paprika, allspice, ground ginger and ground coriander

Slice the meat and the vegetable as thin as you can. Take your time. It makes a lot of difference. It allows the vegetables and meat to cook at the same time without losing much liquid and give authentic shawarma feel to the final product (and it is also therapeutic if like me you had a s**t day in the office).

Mix all the ingredients together and let marinade for half an hour at room temperature. 

Heat a large skillet or other heavy-bottomed pan until very hot. Add the meat mixture and cook on high heat for 10-15 minutes until very little liquid is left. The secret to success is to use a hot very large pan. The meat mixture needs to spread evenly in a thin layer. If you don't have a large enough pan cook in patches.

Serve the meat in Arabic flat bread, pita pockets or sub rolls for an authentic experience. Serve with tahini sauce and a chilli sauce of your choice.




17 comments:

Chiara said...

Still reading and enjoying your posts! I hope you will find the time to post more often--but I know the frustration of hoping to post more and not being able to do so.

Thanks for sharing your perspective, memories and recipe!

Kano said...

@Chiara

Thank you very much for the kind words. I am glad you still like the blog. I have abandoned it for long time and it is about time for a revival.

Unknown said...

I only recently came across your blog, I was looking for old Syrian recipe and I cooked hurra esba3o, it was delicious and it took me straight back home. A journey I needed. I lived in Kuwait during my teen years before coming to england when I was 15, hated it too, lived for the day we packed the car to spend the summer in Syria.

Anonymous said...

Still reading and loving your posts. It's like a semi bible to me btw. Also, i was looking for a sfee7a recipe and my question was, do we have to always use yeast in the dough?

Haykay ja3balee sfee7a ilyowm. I live in Denmark and 3amitwa7am hehehe. Never hurts to let my Danish husband try some home made ones either lol. 7aram he keeps telling me "it's great hp ey bs moo mitl il Sham". Allah ye7mee Sooriyah.

Kano said...

@Danny Starr

Welcome to my blog. I am glad you liked my Harra Esba3o recipe.

You reminded me of packing the car for summer holiday. I don't know when you travelled to Syria but I did it in the Eighties. It was awful time in Syria we had to pack everything and I mean everything. Rice, chocolate, SunTop drink and even tissues.

Kano said...

@daedul

Thank you for the kind words. I am so glad you like the blog.

You don't need to use yeast. You can use self raising flour. It is not the same but it works fine. Just roll it really thin.

Check my Spinach Fatayer recipe

http://syrianfoodie.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/damascus-communal-ovens.html

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Your back!!!! ( had to double check the date to make sure i wasn't imaging in it)
Welcome & thank you.
Was just thinking how fed up i was getting with making the same recipes over and over again.
Keep bloggin and we'll keep cooking
Cheers
Shaheen

Omar A. Siag said...

Still Reading and Still a Fan.. Thank You Dr. :)

I've Been Reading your blog since i as in med school, Now im starting my post grad and its still a joy to see a fellow physician doing what makes him happy.. FOOOOOD <3

Regards.

Unknown said...

I'm still reading your blog after many years! What a great collection of recipes... I'm Egyptian and grew up eating many of these foods.

I made the Shawarma Al-Jazeera last night and it was delicious. Husband even said it was perfection.

So glad you're back with the trustworthy recipes :)

Taste of Beirut said...

I talked one evening at length with a Lebanese man who was telling me all about his experience living in the KSA. Different from yours, interesting as well. Love the shawarma, I'd be willing to bet they also use cardamom in theirs. What do you think?

Kano said...

@Shaheen @Omar @Sarah

Thank you all for coming back and for the lovely words. I will try to keep it up and post more recipes. Keep reading!

Kano said...

@Taste of Beirut

I am sure they do.

Interestingly, we also use it in our shawerma in Damascus although the amount varies from one place to the other. I am not a big fan when the cardamom taste is strong.

The other spice I forgot to add is turmeric. Looking at the pictures people posted on the net of Shawerma Al-Jazeera sandwiches the bread has the unmistakable yellow turmeric colour.

Unknown said...

Do you know of anywhere in London that serves a good mansaf?

Kano said...

@Stefan

Unfortunately not. If you found one would you please let me know. I would love to have a decent mansaf.

Unknown said...

Great to see your site.....good stuff!

Unknown said...

Thanks very much for sharing this recipe.

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