How do you spell Shawarma?

Anyone? Sara?

Is it Shwarma? Shawarma? Chawarma? However you spell it, it is delicious. Tonight's dinner was definitely top ten. That face Jake is making is an "MMMMmmmmmmMMmmmmm" face. It tasted pretty authentic to me. Although I think the sauce should have been at room temperature rather than straight from the fridge.



I marinated the chicken (and tofu for Rachel) overnight. It's basically a yogurt marinade with cucumber, garlic, onions, caradmon, garam masalla, parsley, and dill. Fresh parsley and dill. It was grubbin'. And I made falafel in the fryer. Yes, I used a mix for that. And I was lazy and bought the hummus. And I bought the pitas, too. But I made the Tzatziki sauce from scratch and it was great. And I did the rice with Saffron and dill.

The wine was 2003 St. Supery Sauvignon Blanc. It went really nicely - it gave me a little mouth orgasm.

Here's the sauce:

Tzatziki Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 cups plain yogurt
• 4 cloves pureed garlic
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, grated ( use large holes on grater)
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup of onions
• 3-4 Tbsp cup fresh parsley
• 3-4 Tbsp fresh dill
• Additional spices to taste: cardamon, garam masalla, cinnamon, coriander
  

I put it all in a blender. Then I diced some more cucumber and mixed it in. Seeding the cucumber is pretty easy - Peel it, slice it in half lengthwise, and then use a spoon to scrape out the seeds (like you would for a melon). It makes a great dipping sauce for pita chips or vegetables. And I like a pita chip with hummus and the sauce drizzled on top.

The chicken marinade had all the same stuff, but also 1/2 cup of vinegar. The recipe I read called for malt vinegar, but I used champagne pear. Tonight was the trial run as we are planning to make this for Lauren and Paul when they visit next weekend. Everything came out great, except I over cooked the pita chips by 5 or 6 minutes. Hope it comes out OK next wekend.