Gyros with Roasted Veggies and Tzatziki

Something you never thought you could make… well, you can. This is proof. Gyros. Complete with authentic gyro meat, ala Alton Brown (who else?). And you know what, they were pretty darn good! Though the recipe was a bit ridiculous (who drains onions and yogurt?)… um, no thanks. We drained the veggies for a few minutes, and didn’t even attempt to drain the yogurt. So what if we’re lazy? It was still good! A great leftover meal too.

We also added some roasted veggies. We just seasoned some zucchini and eggplant with the same spices as went into the gyro meat, and roasted them with a bit of olive oil. It adds a bit more substance to the gyro instead of just lamb, which is nice.

Gyros with Roasted Veggies and Tzatziki

Makes 6-8 servings. Recipe from Alton Brown.

INGREDIENTS
1 medium onion, finely chopped or shredded
2 pounds ground lamb
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
1 tablespoon dried marjoram
1 tablespoon dried ground rosemary
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Tzatziki Sauce:
16 ounces plain yogurt
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
Pinch kosher salt
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
5 to 6 mint leaves, finely minced

DIRECTIONS
Process the onion in a food processor for 10 to 15 seconds and turn out into the center of a tea towel. Gather up the ends of the towel and squeeze until almost all of the juice is removed. Discard juice.

Return the onion to the food processor and add the lamb, garlic, marjoram, rosemary, salt, and pepper and process until it is a fine paste, approximately 1 minute. Stop the processor as needed to scrape down sides of bowl.

For Tzatziki sauce, place the yogurt in a tea towel, gather up the edges, suspend over a bowl, and drain for 2 hours in the refrigerator (or just dump it in the bowl). Place the chopped cucumber in a tea towel and squeeze to remove the liquid; discard liquid. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the drained yogurt, cucumber, salt, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and mint. Serve as a sauce for gyros. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Place the lamb mixture into a loaf pan, making sure to press into the sides of the pan. Place the loaf pan into a water bath and bake for 60 to 75 minutes or until the mixture reaches 165 to 170 degrees F. Remove from the oven and drain off any fat. Place the loaf pan on a cooling rack and place a brick wrapped in aluminum foil directly on the surface of the meat and allow to sit for 15 to 20 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 175 degrees F. Slice and serve on pita bread with tzatziki sauce, chopped onion, tomatoes and feta cheese.

Turkey Ottoman Gyros and Homemade Pita Bread

Ok, so just because my last post was so – monumental? – doesn’t mean I’m ignoring you. We’ve still been cooking, and eating, and taking pictures of things… but surprisingly we’ve also been repeating things. Like that Darn Good Pasta Salad? Yea. Made it three times since I posted it. This gem of a red-lentil-soup? A few times more. And well, to be honest, sometimes I just want to sit down and eat something when we finish it, rather than spending time trying to take pretty pictures of a piece of fish that fell apart in the pan. Yes, that happens too.

Anyways, on to the food. Because that’s the reason we’re all here, right?

One good, new thing we made this week (well, mostly new) was this…. a twist on the typical gyros with homemade pita bread. For the gyro meat, we usedAlton Brown’s gyro recipe that we had made before… but seeing as ground lamb is not easy to find (can you tell I just LOVE our grocery store?) we used ground turkey instead. Not too bad – different flavor for sure, but good.

But the best part was the homemade pita bread…. made out of necessity, because when was the last time you actually had a really good pita bread from the grocery store? Thought so. They must have finally realized it too because our grocery store even stopped carrying them – completely. That or they just moved them. Either way, I couldn’t find them, and didn’t really want to eat them if I had, so I decided to make it myself.

I will never buy store brand pita bread again. It wasn’t too hard to make it, and the results were beyond delicious. Plus, you get to watch them do this in the oven:

So I guess that explains where the pocket comes from… another food mystery has been solved!

Sometimes the pocket worked, sometimes it didn’t. Even the pocket-less pitas were good, so don’t toss them! Some of ours also got a bit too crispy. I pressed as much steam out of them as I could without cracking them – but the recipe isn’t kidding when it says put in a plastic bag right away. The steam builds up inside the bag, and softens the bread into the pita bread you’ll recognize. For the really crispy ones – I first covered the bread with a damp tea towel. That softened it enough to get the pocket flatter, at which point I put it in the bag.

Homemade Pita Bread

Makes about a dozen. Recipe from About.

INGREDIENTS
1 package of yeast, or quick rising yeast
1/2 cup warm water
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 teapsoon salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 cup lukewarm water

DIRECTIONS
Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until water is frothy.

Combine flour and salt in large bowl. Make a small depression in the middle of lour and pur yeast water in depression. Slowly add 1 cup of warm water, and stir with wooden spoon or rubber spatula until elastic. Place dough on floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes. When the dough is no longer stick and is smooth and elastic, it has been successfully kneaded.

Coat large bowl with vegetable oil and place dough in bowl. Turn dough upside down so all of the dough is coated. Allow to sit in a warm place for about 3 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

Once doubled, roll out in a rope, and pinch off 10-12 small pieces. Place balls on floured surface. Let sit covered for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 500 deg F. and make sure rack is at the very bottom of oven. Be sure to preheat your baking sheet also.

Roll out each ball of dough with a rolling pin into circles. Each should be about 5-6 inches across and 1/4 inch thick.

Bake each circle for 4 minutes until the bread puffs up. Turn over and bake for 2 minutes. Remove each pita with a spatula from the baking sheet and add additional pitas for baking. Take spatula and gently push down puff. Immediately place in storage bags. Pita bread can be stored for up to a week in a pantry or bread box, and up to a month in the freezer. Be sure to use freezer bags when storing in the freezer.