Chicken Shawarma Wrap with Garlic Toum

Method

1. Pull the hard pads of fat off the thighs and cut the meat into long ribbons no wider than your little finger, then turn them through the allspice, the ground cumin and most of the salt until every strip is dull with spice.
2. Leave the strips in the spice for ten minutes. Allspice is a dried berry, and its oils only start moving into the meat once the salt has pulled a little moisture to the surface for them to travel in.
3. While the chicken takes the spice, drag the flat of a knife over the garlic cloves with the last of the salt, again and again, until they give up and turn to a smooth grey paste. Any lump you leave now will never take the oil.
4. Beat the neutral oil into the garlic paste a few drops at a time with a fork, loosening it with a squeeze of the lemon each time it tightens, until it climbs into a pale thick cream. Toum is built on a neutral oil — olive oil whipped this hard turns bitter.
5. Cut the pickles into thin coins on the diagonal, dice the tomato, shred the romaine into ribbons and chop the parsley, stalks and all, then squeeze what is left of the lemon over the lot.
6. Get the olive oil properly hot in a wide pan, spread the chicken ribbons out so they are not touching and leave them three minutes, then keep them on the move for seven more until the thin ends have gone dark and brittle.
7. While the chicken is in the pan, slide the low-carb tortilla into a bare skillet kept barely warm, a minute each face, and pull it off the moment it gives instead of snapping.
8. Paint the toum in a broad stripe down the warm tortilla, bed the romaine and tomato onto it, lay the hot chicken along the top with the pickles and parsley, and roll it tight with both ends tucked under.
9. Cut it once across the middle and eat it standing over the board — a hand-beaten toum stays loose and will find the open end.