Traditional Gyros Food

TRADITIONAL GYROS

Steps:

• Place onion in a food processor and blend until finely chopped. Transfer onion to a piece of cheese cloth and squeeze out the liquid. Place onion in a large bowl.
• Mix lamb, beef, garlic, oregano, cumin, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, black pepper, and salt with the onion using your hands until well mixed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until flavors blend, about 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Place meat mixture in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped and tacky, about 1 minute. Pack meat mixture into a 7x4-inch loaf pan, ensuring there are no air pockets. Place loaf pan into a roasting pan and pour enough boiling water around the loaf pan to reach halfway up the sides.
• Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, 45 to 60 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 165 degrees F (74 degrees C). Pour off any accumulated fat and cool slightly.
• Thinly slice the gyro meat mixture.
• Spread 1 tablespoon hummus onto each pita bread; top each with gyro meat mixture, lettuce, tomato, red onion, feta cheese, and tzatziki sauce.

GYROS - AN AUTHENTIC RECIPE FOR MAKING THEM AT HOME

Steps:

• Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and mix well.
• Knead the mixture on the counter for 10 minutes - just like you're kneading bread. You may want to use a dough-scraper to help keep the counter clean. (I do). Pick that meat up and SLAM it into the counter, continuing to do so for the 10 minutes. This is key to getting the correct texture. I'm no Alton Brown, but I think the thing we're doing here is melting the fat so that we get a nice smooth texture in the end.
• Form into a flat loaf - I like to put the meat onto a piece of wax paper, and flattening it into a 3" high slab rectangle. I cover it with another piece of wax and use a rolling pin to flatten it out, just make sure you straighten out the edges to form a rectangle so that when it comes time to slice, they are nice and even.
• Bake the loaf on a broiler pan (or pan with raised edges, because it will leak grease!) at 350 for about an hour. Alternatively, you can grill it over coals, that's my favorite way, just be sure to turn often so as to distribute the juices.
• Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing thin.

TRADITIONAL GYRO MEAT RECIPE - (4/5)

Steps:

• 1. Place the onions in the food processor, and process untl finely chopped. Squeeze out the liquid from the onions, and place in bowl with beef and lamb. Season with garlic, oregano,cumin,marjoram,rosemary,thyme,black pepper & salt. Mix well with your hands, and allow to rest to let the flavors develop. 2. Preheat oven to 325°. 3.Place the meat mixture into the food processor, and pulse for about a minute until finely chopped and the mixture feels tacky. Pack the meat mixture into a 7x4 inch loaf pan, making sure there are no air pockets. Line a roasting pan with a damp kitchen towel. Place the loaf pan on the towel, inside the roasting pan, and place into the preheated oven. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the loaf pan. 4.Bake until the gyro meat is no longer pink in the center, and the internal temperature registers 165 degrees F (75 degrees C) on a meat thermometer, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Pour off any accumulated fat, and allow to cool slightly before slicing thinly and serving. You can also substitute ground chicken,turkey or pork for the lamb.

TRADITIONAL GREEK CHICKEN GYRO WITH TZATZIKI SAUCE

Steps:

• In a small bowl combine Greek yogurt, garlic, cumin, sugar, cucumber, and salt and pepper. Stir and refrigerate until ready to use.
• Pound chicken as thin as you can get it. Even if you have purchased the thin sliced chicken you still want to get it as thin as possible. Place chicken in a bowl and combine with vinegar, oregano, paprika, and salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
• In the mean time, peel you potato and cut into 1/4 inch strips. Place cut potato in cold water for at least 15 minutes. Blanching the potatoes before frying will ensure a crispier fry.
• In a large skillet heat vegetable oil. Personally, I regulate the temperature by instinct. I let the oil heat up and test it with a drop of water; if the water shoots back I know the oil is hot enough. If you aren't comfortable with this method you want the oil to stay around 360 degrees. When the oil is hot enough drop fries inches Depending on the thickness of your fry and your temperature control your fries will take anywhere from 10-20 minutes. You want your fries to have a deep golden brown. Keep a careful eye on them and flip if necessary.
• Heat a medium DRY skillet. No oil is necessary to sauté the chicken. Begin to sauté chicken. It should only take about 1 minute on each side depending upon how thinly you pounded it. Let chicken rest under tin foil until you are ready to assemble.
• You can either toast your pita or microwave it. I prefer to microwave it so it is more pliable (only about 20 seconds). Place 2 heaping tablespoons of the tzatziki sauce and spread over pita. Then place half of the chicken, place mostly in the center, making sure that you are able to fold in the sides. Traditionally, fries are to be placed on top of chicken WITHOUT drying off the oil; however this is entirely up to you. Place fries on top of chicken and top with tomatoes, lettuce, and red onions. Serve with extra tzatziki sauce on the side for dipping.

GYROS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Process red onion in a food processor until finely minced. Scoop onion into a piece of cheesecloth and squeeze as much moisture from the onion as possible. Return onion to food processor; add garlic and process until the garlic is well integrated. Blend marjoram, rosemary, kosher salt, and black pepper into the onion mixture.
• Gradually blend ground beef and ground lamb with the onion and seasoning mixture by alternately adding small amounts of each meat to the mixture and processing until well incorporated before adding the next batch.
• Firmly pack the meat mixture into a loaf pan, assuring no air pockets are trapped in the meat.
• Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, about 75 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 175 degrees F (80 degrees C). Drain grease and slice thinly to serve.