Greetings Gastronauts! This is Keef Cooks,
I'm Keef and today I'm going to show you
how to make a meal that is a traditional
end to many a British pub crawl. I'm going to
make a doner kebab from scratch.
[ MUSIC ]
So, I've had loads of requests to do this
One from Atomic Warbusher - who actually actually
wanted a shawarma but it's very, very
similar - and from Blowin' who blew in
from the Atlantic into the West End of
Ireland and has been nagging me about
this for ages and ages - and Jelly
Bryce, who I think was probably the first
to ask for it a really long time ago
- and also Hazarddoom who said that this
would be the solution to a difficult
problem for him which has since been
solved so isn't strictly necessary. So it's
not for you Hazarddoom - you can't have it!
Don't do it!
And finally AnDeH... AnDeH?
OK, right, if you don't know - donner kebab is a
bit legendary around these parts and if
you've never heard of donner kebab it's...
y'know there isn't an animal called a
donner - it's just the process. It actually
comes from Turkey a couple of centuries
ago with this idea of having a big
humongous stash of meat on it on a big
skewer like a rotisserie and roasting it
and slicing off very thin slices and in
the Brit version that's stuffed into
pitta bread with salad and garlic sauce or
chilli sauce or both or whatever - and it's
fabulous, especially when you're drunk!
So generally you get chicken versions and
lamb versions and the the donner meat is
actually made in a factory - you know
there's probably not a kebab shop in the
country really that makes their own...
Actually there is one in Leeds. And donner
kebabs were quite popular in Madrid - we
had quite a lot there but they were a
bit weird - the bread was weird - it wasn't
pitta bread, it was something else altogether.
So for research purposes, I went to a
kebab shop - actually AlFeeno's in Withernsea
in East Yorkshire - hi guys! Thanks for
letting me film your guy slicing the
stuff - and yeah it's a unique thing. Very
spicy and peppery not hot spicy, but you
know, flavourful. And yeah, yummy.
And actually fairly easy to make, so let's do it!
So there's two ways to do this - the easy
way or you can do it the hard way. Of course I'm
doing it the hard way.
So, ingredients - I've got half a kilo of 20%
minced lamb - 20% fat minced lamb. And another
half kilo of fatty pre-frozen scraggy lamb.
Because, believe me, lamb kebab meat is
not the best premium quality - it really
isn't. Anyway. And that's kind of
important I think. And herbs and spices
I've got 2 teaspoons of dried oregano,
1 teaspoon each of Italian herbs, cayenne
pepper, ground black pepper and salt. And
so the Italian-style herb blend from
Sainsbury's - oregano, basil, red bell
pepper, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, sage and
parsley. Lovely - I'm going to be buying my
dried herbs from Sainsbury's in future
because you can actually fit a teaspoon
into this lovely jar which you can't
with these.
So... the easy way, just use
mince, use y'know powdered garlic and
powdered onion and forget about all the
messing about. However I'm doing it the hard
way, so I need to get the bones out of
this first and then get the mincer out.
Right, so I've done most of them just cut
around this bone in the middle. And I
have to say that if I'd bought these
thinking it would be beautiful lamb
steaks that you can actually
eat as such - I'd be very disappointed.
But I knew what they would be like so
I'm not. I'm keeping the
aside for stock. And just cut them into
little chunks because this needs to go
through the mincer
[ MUSIC ]
And you also want to peel and chop your onion and garlic.
Right, to start with I've got the medium
plate on and I'm going to put the lamb
through - well it's all lamb...
Got the cheapie one.
[ MUSIC ]
[ HORRENDOUS MINCER NOISE ]
It's important when you're doing fatty meat
like this that it's very cold so the fat
is - feels pretty solid - otherwise it will
clog up the mechanism. Now let's throw in the
onion - oh, bit of extra meat there - and
the garlic. Pop those through.
[ MORE HORRENDOUS MINCER NOISE ]
And now I need to change the plates to the fine one.
[ MUSIC ]
One thing I hate about using the mincer
is there's so much cleanup involved
afterwards - but, got to be done.
And now just mix up the minced lamb - the original minced lamb and
and the minced minced lamb and the herbs
and spices. If you're not doing your own
mincing, at this point just you know
squeeze it, knead it, get it as smooth as
you can - it wants to be kind of like a
paste. And just pop that back through.
[ MUSIC }
[ NOISY MINCER AGAIN ]
Now you want to get your oven preheating
to 180 degrees Celsius. And you want some foil
- aluminium foil - aluminum
[ LAUGHS ]
[ MUSIC ]
You want a skewer or a wooden spoon
Hang on, let me just...
[ MUSIC ]
...take care of that and you want yer stuff
and what we're going to do is make a big
fat sausage and we're going to use the...
did I say skewer?
That's a honing iron or a steel or whatever
- just as a guide to make a hole in the middle.
This actually smells like a kebab
already even though it's raw.
Roll it into a nice cylinder, take the guide out and
just fold that over
And I'm going to wrap that again - a few times actually -
'cos I don't want any juice
escaping and try not to press it and
compress the hole in the middle. And then
I'll just pop this in the oven for about
an hour and then check the internal
temperature which needs to be 65 degrees Celsius
Right so it's had 50 minutes and
it's starting to dribble so I'm just
going to take it out and check it...
Woo!
So slam the old thermo metro in - I really
must get a new one - in towards the
centre and yeah, that's 75. I declare that cooked.
So now we want to just let it
rest for about 20 minutes...
It's rested... and I wish I was.
[ MUSIC ]
Let's see what we've got...
[ MUSIC ]
a lot of foil...
[ MUSIC ]
still very hot - yeah baby - all right we've
got a cylinder of, well, kebab meat!
Can't find the hole in the middle though -
because I want to stick this back in -
oh yeah - I think I've found it.
Right let's get our improvised
rotisserie or vertical grill going
OK now let's let's do the vertical
rotisserie thing. So in a proper kebab
shop they have these sort of gas fires
behind a rotating spit with the massive
cylinder of meat on it, but
obviously you don't have that at home, and
neither do I - this is just to give it
some colour and it's hot!
[ LAUGHING and CACKLING ]
Right, now, in a kebab shop they have these sort of razor
things to shave very fine ribbons off -
obviously I don't have that and I
thought I might be able to do it with my
veg peeler... I can't.
So I'll just slice it as thinly as I can
with the knife. Right so I've got a
pitta bread that I've had warming in the oven
for a bit - possibly a bit too long, it's a bit
dry. Never mind. And what we do is slam
it full of stuff - so we'll have some... some
of the lamb... and some salad - the exact
composition of this is entirely your own
choice, so don't listen to what I say.
And I like thinly sliced red onion in there
and some tomato and some garlic mayonnaise -
zhum - and that is my kebab.
But before I can eat it I've got to take its
photograph. Back in a minute.
"OK, kebab time! Helloooo"
"I'm here. I was here anyway"
"Waiting in the wings"
You wouldn't normally cut it in half, but...
[ LAUGHING ]
"Flippin' 'eck. Right, there you go"
[ LAUGHING ]
"Ooh, found the mayo. What's that, onions?"
"Mayo"
Onions, tomato, lettuce...
"garlic mayo and... kebab, kofta stylee"
"Mmm, that is NICE! Ooh that really is..."
"I know"
"So is the meat spiced? Because it tastes..."
"Very, a lot"
"I can taste all sorts of things, oh yeah,
"Some heat coming through now"
"So the meat on its own you might think is over-spiced
"But with all the other stuff...it works"
"It's spot on...ooh yeah"
"Mmm-mmmm"
[ CACKLE? ]
"Yeah"
"I'm not walking anywhere with this 'cos I'll only spill it"
"That's why you shouldn't drink and drive...
"'cos you'll spill it"
"Best kebab you've ever had?"
"No, this one"
"Yeah, it's pretty good" [ LAUGHS ]
"PRETTY GOOD! That'll do for me!"
Alright guys, thank you - make it!
And that's that - I hope you enjoyed it.
Now please do the usual - likes, shares, comments,
subscriptions, donations, patronage - all
that good stuff. Or just some of it and
thank you for watching and see you next time
[ MUSIC ]