Original Halifax Dish | Donair

Original video by Chef Moses

Hi, Welcome to cooking with Chef Moses. I’m Chef Moses. I want to thank everyone that subscribed to my youtube channel and to celebrate this achievement I’m going to ditch the whites, go casual and teach you how to make a hometown traditional dish. If you didn’t know already then you know now! I’m from Halifax, Nova Scotia. A favourite and delicious dish amongst locals here is Donair. It’s a favourite snack after a night of bar crawls, as people flock to spots to eat this tasty dish! So what is Donair? Back in the ’70s a greek immigrant decided he was going to make gyros for the locals. Gyros involve lamb and Tzatziki. The palette in Nova Scotia wasn’t really ready for Gyro (especially the lamb). So he decided to modify the recipe a little. He used ground beef and a sweet garlic sauce that just oozes out all over the place. Yum!

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Let’s get into it! Here is what you need to make Donair:

2 lbs of Ground beef

2 tsp Ground Black Pepper

2 Tsp of Onion Powder

2 tsp of Garlic Powder

2 tsp of Salt

2 tsp of Paprika

2 tsp of Cayenne Pepper (optional: 1 teaspoon depending on your heat level)

2 Tsp of dried oregano

What you need for the famous Donair Sauce!

To the left are the ingredients you need for the famous donair sauce! It’s super easy.

First of all, we are going to use a mixer. We are going to use the bread hook. The bread hook compared to the other hooks just works the meat a little bit more.

I’m going to take my 2 pounds of beef and put it in the mixing bowl with the pepper, salt, onion, garlic, paprika, cayenne pepper, and dried oregano. In fact, I’m going to be using fresh oregano from my garden this year. When blending you want to blend on low for about 4–5 minutes so that you can mix all the spices incorporated and break down the fat in the meat.

The secret to making this dish is how you work the meat. I’ve got two pounds of medium ground beef (you can use lean ground beef if you’d like). You will be using a blender. You want to beat the meat until it becomes stringy and can hold together in a loaf.

You want to beat the meat until it no longer looks like ground beef. You are then going to remove it and roll it on the cutting board into a loaf. Make sure your hands are cold so that the fat doesn’t stick to you. You want to make it about 8 inches long and 4 inches wide. Make sure all the air is out of it as well.

Knead the ground beef like a loaf of bread

Now you will cover the donair meat in tinfoil. All the ends, all-around nice and snug. Then put it on a rack on the baking sheet. The reason I put it on the rack on top of the baking sheet is that I want the fat to drip off when baking. I don’t want the fat to be laying on the Donair meat. This is then going in the oven for 2 hours at 350°. Once that’s finished we will let it cool down for five minutes and when it’s cool we will cut it.

While it’s in the oven we can now get the other ingredients ready.

There are two trains of thought when getting the Donair Sauce ready. It’s sweet, a little bit sour and it’s got a great taste of garlic to it. One of the original recipes for the donair sauce is to use the evaporated milk, a quarter cup of vinegar, 1/2 cup of sugar, and a little bit of garlic powder. That will give you a runny donair sauce. I like a thick donair sauce so that when I pour it on top of the donair meat it just kinda sits on top and doesn’t run all down my arms. This is how I make my donair sauce. I’m going to take the condensed milk which already has the sweetness that we want. Put in the garlic and vinegar. Then whisk it up till it's a thick consistency.

Give it a taste to see if you like it!

You then will let it sit in the fridge for 2 and 1/2 hours so it’ll thicken it up a little and give it that perfect extra amount of zing.

Last but not least a donair isn’t a donair without the proper fixings. You will take a Spanish onion (because of the taste and flavour) and a Beefeater Tomato. Roughly chop the onion and put it in a little bowl off to the side. Then take your tomato and cut off the bottom. Cut about a quarter-inch slice. Then quarter-inch again downwards. Turn it again and quart inch and put this in a bowl as well. You want to prep the toppings in a chunky way for them to be as authentic as possible.

On a Saturday night at the local Donair shop there wasn’t time enough time to finely dice or slice. The meat even had to be prepared ahead of time because the donairs were flying out the door as fast as they could be made. So what they usually do is make the meat in about 40 pounds, put it on a spit and roll it in front of a roaster and then shave the meat and put it on your donair.

Take the beef cut off an end so it stands up

Once the meat has cooked remove it from the oven and let it cool. If you cooked the meat and then put it in the fridge you will want to heat up a pan and reheat the meat so it’s nice and hot for the donair. When you are done warming up or cooling down the beef. Take the beef, cut off an end so it stands up. Then shave off pieces. Not too thick. Eighth of an inch thickness. You want the meat to look like it's going in a sandwich.

Now you will take out the pita bread. A lot of times in a restaurant you will see them take it dip it in water on both sides and steam cook them, but you can microwave it to make it easier.

Now it's time to make the donair. Take two pieces of tinfoil and wrap it up so the sauce doesn’t go all over your hands. Take the meat place it in the middle of the pita. Take the donair sauce, not a lot just a little and run it across. Add your roughly chopped onions and tomatoes. Evenly spread out and then layer with a little more donair sauce. Take your donair to fold it. Take one piece of tinfoil. Wrap it up nice and tight, and then the other piece of tinfoil and wrap it up the other way so that when eating the juices drop into the second piece of tinfoil.

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Now you have the perfect Donair! I hope you try this classic and traditional dish. Enjoy eating them carefully but with a lot of zest and a lot of fun.

Now that’s a good donair!