The search for the best Kebabs in Ireland.

Where I grew up in London is one of the best places to buy a Kebab. A good Kebab is a wonderful experience, the flavour of grilled meat with freshly cut salad in pitta or Turkish flatbread and a large squeeze of lemon is just ‘beautiful’.

Haringey in North London was mainly a mix of Irish, Greek, Cypriot, Turkish and English families. I was lucky to have Greek Cypriot neighbours as a child, so I learnt about charcoal grilled foods long before I heard of a BBQ.

Greek 'village bread'

I learned to love fresh Greek bread ‘village style’, a large round loaf always hot out of the oven. Mum used to send me for a couple of them 2 or 3 times a week. The smell of freshly baked bread as I walked home has always stayed with me, as does the wonderful smells wafting from the Greek restaurants and take aways on Green Lanes.

Phyllis Coleston a friend of my mum and dads, bought me my first Doner Kebab. I was about 7 or 8 years old and I was round at her house playing with Martin her son who had (as I remember) a great mini golf set. I wasn’t sure if I wanted one, but Martin told me they were lovely so we had one each for lunch. I didn’t like spicy food, so I avoided the chilli sauce, I just had a big wedge of lemon that had warmed up sitting on top of the Doner Kebab wrapped in paper. It was a revelation. I loved it!. Hot slices of slightly spiced lamb with thinly sliced iceberg lettuce,onions and cucumber and a few wedges of tomato,all held together in a warm pitta bread, and it was huge!

So as you can tell I like the odd Kebab. It was the food of  choice for chefs in London. After working in a hot kitchen all day and night with the finest ingredients money could buy the last thing you wanted was to eat any of the stuff you cooked. A Kebab was always a winner  at 1 or 2 am 🙂 So as a chef I could tell a good one from a bad one.

Then I came to Ireland, and and occasionally didn’t feel like cooking and desired a Kebab. Imagine my ‘Horror’ to find that wonderfully simple dish turned into the stuff of nightmares. I have had at about 15 Kebabs in the last 3 years in Ireland each one an insult to food and to the customer! A tiny amount of meat (usually microwaved) served in a ‘small’ pitta bread with truly awful salad that is swamped by horrendous processed sauces that are slopped on a such huge quantities that I can only assume is to hide the ‘SHIT’ they have charged you for.  So I am very pleased to let you know I found a great Kebab in Ireland

The Best Kebab's in the West

The Charcoal Grill in Galway City is on Cross Street near the Quays. The staff are amazingly friendly and the food is outstanding. Layered chicken and lamb doner’s, Kofte’s, chicken and lamb shish kebabs cooked to order and at a very reasonable price. We shared the Charcoal Grill Special that came with some of all their styles of Kebabs salad chips and pitta bread. The cost was less than 20 euros with 2 cokes, An amazing place, a huge well done and thank you.

Yum Yum

John and Elora

Happy Staff with Great Food

Lamb Shanks in White Wine

Lamb Shanks in White Wine

This recipe was inspired by the Greek dish Kelftiko, a wonderfully tender lamb casserole.

There are many variations of this dish, some are cooked in paper to seal in the juices others are cooked as a stew or braised. Expensive versions use boned out shoulder or leg but the shanks with the bone left in produce a far better flavour and cost a lot less.

This is a sexed up version that requires a little bit of effort as I marinade the shanks for 24hrs before cooking to add that little extra flavour to the dish.

This will serve 6 people a very generous portion.

First to make the marinade:

1 bottle of semi sweet white wine (I used Liebfraumilch cheap and tasty)

250 ml of olive oil

8 slighty crushed juniper berries

8 black peppercorns

2 sprigs of fresh Rosemary

3 bay leaves

1 medium diced onion

5 cloves of garlic

a teaspoon of sweet paprika

a large pinch of sea salt

Mix all these together in a large bowl and add the Lamb Shanks (I had mine cracked by the butcher as its easier to work with them in finger length pieces) cover with cling film and put in the fridge or a cold area turning a couple of times during the 24hr marinading period.

The marinade will also be used for cooking the Lamb Shanks.

For cooking the Shanks you will need:

1 large onion in quartered

2 medium carrots cut into 3 pieces

2 sticks of celery cut into 3 pieces

4 whole cloves of garlic

1 pint of chicken stock

Put the vegetables into a large cooking pot/casserole with a touch of olive oil and slighty colour the onions.

After 24hrs take out the Shanks and dry them with kitchen roll and use a decent one like Bounty/Plenty as it won’t stick to the meat and come apart.Then brown off the pieces in olive oil (heat the pan up first and then add your oil heat that up then add the shanks this will ensure they brown) and add to the pot.

Now pour in the marinade and chicken stock and stir to mix (if the meat isn’t fully covered add a little bit of cold water till it does) put a lid on and bring to the boil once its boiling turn it down to a slow simmer and cover the top with tin foil and put the lid back on . Leave alone for 3 hours.

After 3hrs the meat should be ready to fall off the bone, remove the meat and leave to cool on a plate, bring the cooking liquid back to the boil and let it reduce by half (this means boiling the liquid so it will evaporate leaving a stronger flovour as it gets more concentrated) then strain through a colander to remove the solids and then through a  fine seive so your left with the begining of a beautiful sauce reduce this again by a third skimming off any fats from the top, taste and season with salt and pepper.

Finely dice a large carrot and a medium onion put the carrot into a small pan with a knob of butter and a drop of olive oil and season put on a medium heat with a lid on for about 5 minutes stirring occasionaly  add in the onions and soften then add to the sauce.

Take the cooled meat off of the bones with your fingers it will fall off in your hands (doing this means the meat will serve double the amount of people and it is far easier to eat) and chop it into smaller equal pieces season with salt and pepper and add back to the sauce.

The dish is ready  just warm and serve with Mash Potatos

Lamb Shanks in White Wine

Its a lot of work but so worth the effort.

Plus you get to use nearly every pan in the kitchen 🙂