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Last year at this time, I was living in Berlin and having an incredible adventure filled with cooking, bike riding, brunching, Pass Kontrol shows, beer drinking….oh, that sounds a lot like what happens in Bushwick, too! Anyway, there’s a very special place in my heart for that city and the time I spent there, and as the weather in New York turned a little crisp and grey earlier this week, I turned entirely wistful for one of the best street food experiences a Berliner can have — Döner Kebab.

Döner is basically some sort of meat product (usually a combination of two meats, and can be anything from lamb to chicken to goat) shaped into a cone, roasted on a spit and sliced off to order. Typically, the meat is then served in Turkish flat bread and accompanied by a variety of salads and sauces. The salads and sauces were easy enough to replicate, but the meat posed a special problem considering I don’t have a spit or access to a pre-made Döner cone.

Döner Kebab
(serves 4)

For the meat:
1 package ground turkey
1 package ground chicken
Seasoning salt
Pepper

Mix together the ground meat (whatever combination you want or looks good at the store, it’s super flexible), liberal amounts of any seasoning salt you like and pepper. Form the meat into a loaf, and wrap as tightly as possible in aluminum foil. Roast in a pre-heated oven on low heat (the only recipe I found said 100 degrees Celsius, which I just translated to “the lowest temperature on my oven’s dial” or 250 degrees Fahrenheit) for 4 hours. This can be done a day ahead of time and then re-heated when you’re ready to eat.

For the sauces:

–Scharf (hot)
Combine and let sit for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight:

1/2 cup ketchup
1 dried red chili, minced
Salt & pepper to taste
Water — just enough to thin out the ketchup, maybe a tablespoon or two

–Knoblauch (garlic)
Combine and let sit for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight:
12 oz plan yogurt
1/4 cup chopped parsley
3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt & pepper to taste

Veggies:

Iceberg and tomato salad (lightly dressed with oil and vinegar)
Sliced cucumbers
Sliced red onion
Red cabbage (jarred)
Pickled jalepeño slices

To assemble, thinly slice the meat, and place in a warmed or toasted pita (I used pocketless pita), pile on the salads, veggies and sauces as you like, and enjoy. Best served with a beer, after many beers, or before a long, cold bike ride home.