For the first time in some 5 years I cooked shoarma tonight. The last week or so we’ve really been in a Dutch cooking mood. While shoarma originates in the Middle East, it is very popular in the Netherlands and when we lived there we cooked it quite often (shoarma is spelled shawarma in the US).

Many butcher shops and super markets in Holland sell pre-marinated ‘shoarma meat’: usually pork, sometimes lamb or chicken, with a marinade of spices. The traditional way to serve the meat is in a warm pita bun, with a generous portion of a garlic dressing (knoflooksaus). You can't find this premarinated meat or the prepared dressing in the States, but I found a number of recipes for them and we liked the result. The knoflooksaus was especially good, and very close to what I remember from the Netherlands.

Below is the recipe that I used tonight. A next time I'll change the shoarma mix -- it was good but not quite like in Holland.

For the shoarma meat we used chicken breast, but a more traditional (Dutch) choice would be pork. In any case, slice the meat in thin slices, no longer than 1.5 inch, and marinate them with some oil and a blend of the following spices.

- 4 tsp cumin
- 3 paprika powder
- 2 tsp coriander
- 2 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp salt

Above are the proportions that I used, a little bit more than needed for two chicken breast. I used about 75% of the blend. Fry the chicken with the spices, until the meat is done.

In the mean time, warm up 4 pita buns in the oven.

For the knoflooksaus, mix the following ingredients (portion for at least 2 people, it was too much for us):

- 4 tbs mayonnaise
- 4 tbs yogurt
- 1 small clove of garlic, smashed
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- Salt & pepper