Pseudolus makes a Dirty Donner

[pseudolus]

Aside from Cadbury's double deckers, the only thing I always miss about the UK is a dirty donner (elephant leg style). Donner meat and chips. Fat Friday guilty pleasure. So I decided to try and make one and this is first credible effort in a trial and error that has lasted a few months.

Meat - Lamb. really you need a mix of lamb shoulder and some lean to get the fat content correct, but its a bit of a hobsons choice really so I ended up getting a job lot of lamb cutlets, the fattier the better. I use 1kilo for my trial batchs and all ingredient amounts is related to 1k of meat. Depending upon the cut, you keep the fat but remove the sinewy bit that some lamb cutlets have (that bit that when your at a BBQ and wolf down a quick lamb chop, you can't chew properly, gets stuck in your throat, and you have to pull it out and chuck it, inconspicuously)

Herbs -
The hardest but most vital to get it Onion powder. I had it sent over for the purpose. 2 Tbl spoon.
Garlic powder - 1 tbl spoon (the one with salt as opposed to salt free)
Salt - 2 Tsp
White Pepper - 2 tsp
Cumin - 2 tsp
Paprika (smoked is best) 2 Tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Juice of a lime.

Now the simple part. Stick it all into a blender and whizz it until everything is well mixed up and the meat is completely broken down. You might need to add a drop of olive oil to get it going. If you have to do it in batches, it is very important to mix it all together well in the big bowl afterwards.

Now, it's tough to make an elephants legs with such a small amount of meat, and my efforts with skewers etc turned to crap not least because it ended up with a sausage and very hard to get the thin strips. To compensate this, I put the mix in the fridge for a few hours until it is good and cold. Then, out on a flat oiled backing tray, roll it out with a rolling pin until it is as thin as you need it - 3mm is my preference. To cook, I have tried Grilling it under the grill (don't turn it, as remember the dirty donner only has one side exposed to the heat). I have also just taken a blow torch to it, gently working my up and down. Best flavour, but very laborious. It is very sticky, and I have thought about turning my gas BBQ on its side, and leaning the mix up against it but the GF said not to "It will go Boom!" - she might have a point.

Anyway, however you cook it, I cut it into long strips, put onto home made chips (I microwave a couple of potato until they are basically cooked, slice 'em and fry 'em) with lashings of chili and mint sauce.

Chili Sauce - 2 small onions, 2 cloves of garlic, 5 chilis, 1 red bell roasted pepper skinned, smoked paprika, honey / sugar, dash of vinegar, tomato purée, tin of chopper tomatoes (put through seize to remove the water). Put in pan with dash of oil and fry good and hard until you are scraping the pan a tad to get the dried out parts all mixed in. I always through in some mint sauce or jelly into the mix for kebabs as well. Job Done.

Enjoy! Will update on my next experiment on this but run out of onion powder so if you see any let me know.

[Yasojack]

Just dry onions out and blend, or if it need flour mix with flour

You interpretation of a doner is more of a dogs dinner than a doner.

for chilli sauce make a syrup and reduce then add chilli and corriander, and as you say job done.

[pseudolus]

Just dry onions out and blend, or if it need flour mix with flour

You interpretation of a doner is more of a dogs dinner than a doner.

for chilli sauce make a syrup and reduce then add chilli and corriander, and as you say job done.

Too sweet - that sounds like a Thai chili sauce. No place for that on a dirty donner.

Besides, this is not a doner, like a souvlaki, its a dirty donner. A very different beast.