Shwaaaarrrrrmaaa...

...for those of you who have seen 'How it Should Have Ended' for the Avengers.

Or, on other words, shawarma.

I have an awesome boyfriend, by the way. After seeing the Avengers, most boys went around quoting Iron Man and pretending to be Captain America. Well, no- ...okay, yes, there was and is some of that. But. But, my favorite part is when he comes back and says that he wants to go see it again at the local discount theatre and then come back and make shawarma.
Of course, college life being what it is, things didn't go quite as planned, and we didn't get to do things quite in that order.
The actual making of the shawarma meat was stretched over two days (which didn't hurt the marinade in the least, I must say), and then we had to wait another two days to make the pita bread to put the stuff in, and we won't even get to eat the sandwiches until tomorrow! However, we've gotten to sample everything along the way and it all appears a smashing success.
We just haven't had a chance to assemble our heroic meal yet.
See what I did there?
I should be ashamed of myself, shouldn't I?
I'm not.


On to shawarma!
Because I was cooking as part of a team, I didn't do my typical recipe deconstruction, so I have actual recipes to refer you to today!
The shawarma recipe comes from Wendy on allrecipes.com

• 1/2 cup malt vinegar
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom
• 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
•  
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• salt and pepper to taste
•  
• 4 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup sliced onion
• 4 cups shredded lettuce
• 8 pita bread rounds

Okay... I did change a few things. For instance, I had only a couple little sauce packets of malt vinegar that I'd picked up at a fast food place ages ago, so I had to use the tail ends of some white balsamic and some rice vinegar that I had about.
I just realized what an odd college student I am.
Oh well.
Probably could have used extra light olive oil just as well as vegetable oil in here, as the vinegar would have more than made up for any flavor discrepancies.
Also, I used chicken breasts, and had already chunked them about half-fist-sized for portion control earlier. Worked just fine.
One last note before we move on- cardamom is amazing. This cannot be understated. It is the miracle spice in this recipe. Wonderful.
Moving on.

As the recipe says, you put the chicken and the marinade in the baking dish, cover it, and stick it in the fridge. It says at least four hours to overnight. I say, if you go with that 'at least four hours' bit, you're crazy. Overnight is a minimum. We actually had to let it sit until i think around noon... I'll have to double check with him on that, the day was a bit hectic. However, the chicken had actually taken on a desaturated sort of color from the marinade by the time we got it in the oven.
Now, I'm not saying it would be a good idea to marinate it for two days or anything! Heavens no! Just don't make the mistake of going half-way on this. I promise you, it's worth the wait.

Oh... Aaaaand with that, it's almost one in the morning, I'm rambling, and I have cycling early...today. I'll continue this later ;)

I'll talk about the perfect sauce and post some pictures with the next blog!