Shawarma, an Arabic word thought to come from the Turkish çervirmek, meaning to rotate or spit-roast, is the Levantine cousin of the Greek gyros and the Turkish döner: skewers of sliced or minced meat, turned in front of a vertical grill, and slowly cooked in its own delicious fat until it’s sliced on to your plate. It’s unsurprising that such a clever idea has spread so widely, but each version has its own distinct character, and the shawarma, found from Egypt to Iraq, is quite different from the herby gyros or the more mildly spiced, oniony döner – and different again in every country where it’s popular. The thing that binds them all together, however, is the difficulty in recreating this much-loved street food at home, if one doesn’t live in the vicinity of professionals and, unaccountably, also lacks a metre-long rotating skewer in front of a four-burner gas grill in one’s own kitchen. Happily, I’ve discovered it is indeed possible to get great results without investing in either.
