Chaos & Confetti

Chaos here!

I celebrated another birthday recently and one of the many great gifts I received was a cookbook from my sister.  I guess she saw how much use I got out of Marvel Eat the Universe, the cookbook she bought me a few years ago, and decided to unleash a few more Marvel recipes on me.  This time, she gave me Avengers Campus: The Official Cookbook.

These recipes are based on what can be found in Pym’s Test Kitchen and the surrounding areas of Avengers Campus in Disney’s California Adventure theme park.  Since we can’t make the trip to California anytime soon, why not taste what the opposite side of the country gets to eat?  

While I’m sure that I would have jumped into this cookbook soon anyways, a perfect opportunity to try my hand at one of Earth’s mightiest recipes quickly presented itself, and you know I can’t resist the call to adventure.

Some close friends of ours recently had a baby, and we signed up for their meal train, promising to provide dinner for a specified night.  Unfortunately, while I get the Summer off to hangout with Yeti (our adorable son), my wife Confetti has to put in ten hour days during the Summer.  While she was ready to figure out a way to help with making a meal, I told her I would take the lead this time.  This would be a solo adventure (with maybe a little help from my lovable sidekick Yeti).  

Flipping through my new cookbook I read through plenty of amazing looking recipes, but New York’s Tastiest Shawarma stood out to me most.  If the meal was good enough for the Avengers after defeating Loki, maybe it would be suitable for some new parents too.  Parenting can be its own awesome team-up adventure too.

As a famous creator once said, ‘nuff said!  Let’s get to that recipe!

Recipe Source: Avengers Campus: The Official Cookbook – Recipes from Pym’s Test Kitchen and Beyond

Recipe Name: New York’s Tastiest Shawarma

Ingredients:

Marinade:

• 3/4 cup lemon juice

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 pound diced boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Garlic Sauce:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil, divided in half
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Shawarma:

• 4 pieces of naan bread

The Cooking:

As I stated above, I would be making this meal while also chilling with my toddler.  It turns out that this is a great recipe to complete during child care duties because it’s so easy.  Sure there is some raw chicken to cut up, but that is one one step.  

Honestly, I thought this might be harder due to the “medium” difficulty assigned to it in the cookbook.  The ease of this recipe makes me a little more confident about some of the “hard” rated meals (I’m sure that overconfidence will be my downfall eventually).  

Most of this recipe is mixing ingredients to make either a marinade or a sauce, which my son loved watching come together.  He especially enjoyed seeing our blender in action.  Otherwise, I just had to do some waiting around for chicken to properly soak in the goodness or for it to bake in an oven.  The simplicity and long moments of down time kept me free to play and entertain my littlest superhero.

When it came time to (Avengers) assemble all the parts, that also came as no big deal.  I know mine didn’t look quite as well plated as the cookbook picture, but the taste was still there.  My shawarma rolling and foil wrapping skills just are what they should be.  I will say that this meal would probably work just as well if not rolled together.

Also, I added a side of sliced cucumbers to add a little greenery to the meal and a little crunch.  Hulk Crunch!    

*I made sure to double the recipe so we would have enough to deliver to our newly-parented friends and have some for ourselves.

Taste:

Chaos’ Thoughts:

This ended up being a pretty good meal with plenty of flavor, especially for the reduced effort that went into it.  The garlic/lemon juice saw added a lot too.  Now if we ever end up at Avengers Campus and someone asks for some shawarma, I can say, “nah, I can make that at home,” which will leave me free to try other goodies as well… and then maybe circle back around for some shawarma anyways.  

Confetti’s Thoughts:

I thought this was a great meal! The chicken was delicious and I always love naan bread. I would definitely eat this recipe again.

Yeti’s Thoughts:

Yeti is a toddler so he can be weird about trying new foods.  However, he really got into the idea of having the garlic sauce on his plate and dipping a few items into it.  In toddler that translates to, “cool recipe, I can’t wait to give it a chance when I’m older.”