Home-Style Döner Kebab

Method

1. Turn the oven on to 180 °C. Grate the onion finely, then squeeze the pulp hard in your fist or a cloth and discard the juice; wet onion makes the meat crumbly. Put the meat, squeezed onion, grated garlic, salt, cumin, paprika, black pepper, oregano and half the chilli flakes in a bowl and knead hard with one hand for 6 min, slapping it against the bowl, until it turns pale, sticky and paste-like and stretches when you pull it. This long kneading gives döner its dense, sliceable texture instead of a crumbly meatloaf.

   Add in this stepMinced beef (about 20% fat) 300 gOnion, grated and squeezed 80 gGarlic cloves 1Salt ¾ tspGround cumin 1 tspSweet paprika 1 tspBlack pepper ½ tspDried oregano ½ tspTurkish chilli flakes (pul biber) or mild chilli flakes ½ tsp

2. Line a baking tray with baking paper. With wet hands, shape the meat into a tight, compact log 18 cm long (×2 means make two logs), pressing out any air pockets. Bake in the oven preheated to 180 °C for 35 min, until browned outside and 71 °C in the centre; without a thermometer, cut into the middle: no pink, and the juices run clear.

   oven

3. While it bakes, make the sauces and salad. Garlic sauce: stir the grated garlic and salt into the yogurt. Chilli sauce: stir the tomato paste, water and remaining chilli flakes until smooth. Salad: slice the red onion paper-thin and rub it with the sumac and chopped parsley; shred the lettuce and cut the tomatoes into thin half-moons.

   Add in this stepPlain yogurt 120 gGarlic cloves for the sauce 1Salt for the sauce 1 pinchTomato paste 2 tspWater 30 mlTurkish chilli flakes (pul biber) or mild chilli flakes ½ tspRed onion ½Sumac ½ tspFlat-leaf parsley 5 gRomaine lettuce 60 gTomatoes 1

4. Wrap the cooked log loosely in foil and let it rest for 10 min so the juices settle and it firms up. Then, with your sharpest knife, shave it lengthways into slices as thin as you can, 2–3 mm.

5. Warm the bread in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 2 min in total (about 1 minute per bread, turning once) until soft and lightly toasted, then wrap it in a clean tea towel. Cut a pocket into each one, or split it horizontally without cutting all the way through.

   Add in this stepTurkish bread (pide) or large pitta breads 2

   medium heat

6. Heat the oil in a 26 cm frying pan over high heat until it shimmers (×2 means cook in two batches). Spread the meat in one layer and fry for 3 min in total, turning once, until the edges are crisp and brown; don't keep stirring or it won't brown. Spread garlic sauce inside the bread, add lettuce and tomato, pack in the hot meat, top with the onion salad and finish with chilli sauce and more garlic sauce. Eat straight away.

   Add in this stepNeutral oil 1 tbsp

   high heat