Make Your Own Homemade Kebab Meat (US Gyro) at Home

In an increasingly frugal world, where we have to squeeze every ounce out of the cash we have, frugal is the new buzz word - and for some of us it means more nights in, or cutting corners on what used to be a night out.

Here's a great recipe for a kebab/gyro that you can make at home: homemade kebab meat.  Instead of paying out for a kebab on your way home (or turning out late at night to buy one), why not give this budget recipe a go and enjoy a kebab at a fraction of the cost.

Once cooked, you can serve straight away, or store it in the fridge and reheat it later. I'd suggest for reheating it, either 2-3 minutes in a microwave, or reheat it in a foil parcel in a hot oven for 20-30 minutes, or you can use a wok or frying pan to quickly re-heat it.

Ingredients:

• ½ pound of minced lamb
• ½ pound of minced beef
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon, black pepper
• 2 teaspoons, plain flour
• ¼ teaspoon, cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon, garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon, onion powder
• 1 teaspoon, dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon, dried mixed herbs

Making your own kebabs is now quite straight forward, simply:

1. Add together the two minced meats.
2. Add together all the dry ingredients.
3. Now mix all the ingredients together, making sure it's all mixed up well.
4. Shape the meat/herbs mix into a "loaf" shape. You'll get the best results if you make this as compact as possible, so it's better to shape this like a traditional loaf of bread. Place the block of meat mix onto a baking tray; the objective here is to get the outside nicely browned, but the centre will still be moist and not dry.
5. Bake it in the middle of a preheated oven at 340°F (175°C, Gas Mark 4) for an hour and 20 minutes. Turn your kebab meatloaf once or twice during cooking, to ensure it browns evenly.
6. When it's cooked, you need to slice it as thinly as possible.

How to Serve Your HomeMade Kebab

Serve straight away. In a kebab shop you'd stuff this meat into a pitta bread along with salad and some chilli sauce or mayonnaise. I love kebab meat on its own or with potato chips/wedges.

If you plan to reheat it in foil in the oven later, you might like to leave it unsliced until you've done that, but if you're reheating it in a microwave or a wok/frying pan, then you can slice it straight away. Wrap it up well if you put it in the fridge so it retains its flavour and moistness.

Alternatives

• If you want to reduce the cooking time, then instead of cooking it as a meatloaf shape and shaving it thinly once cooked, why not just shape the meat into short or long sausage shapes and serve your kebab up as chunks of meat! It's easier that way and it makes great party snack food too!
• Serve your kebab in a pitta bread, with a splash of mayonnaise, chilli sauce or mint sauce.
• Serve your kebab up in a flatbread by laying the flatbread down and squirting sauce over it, place a thin layer of shredded cabbage, thinly sliced onions and salad into the middle of the flatbread, then place your kebab meat on top and roll it up as a kebab wrap.

I hope you like this.

To make it easier to make this recipe in double-quick time, why not make up a mix of the spices and store them in a lidded jar - then simply give the jar a shake and spoon out the quantity you want in one easy move. To do this, simply multiply the ingredients above by 4 and you'll have enough ready mix homemade kebab meat spices to make a further four batches in the coming weeks.

Mix the following ingredients together:

• 4 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons, black pepper
• 8 teaspoons, plain flour
• 1 teaspoon, cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons, garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons, onion powder
• 4 teaspoons, dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons, dried mixed herbs

To use this mix in the above recipe, you'll simply need to spoon out 1/4 of the jar!