Gyro Flies Pepsi! Gyro Flies Pepsi!

Many years ago when I was 17, my uncle Mike had a rock band.  And my parents were foolish enough to let me go with the band and help run lights and sound pretty much whenever I wanted to, which led to a lot of fun for me that I wouldn't and probably shouldn't have otherwise had.  One night in particular, the band was playing at a frat house in Madison.  After the gig, the band went down to Zorba's on State Street and my instant love affair with the Gyro began.  "Gyro Flies Pepsi!", the cashier called out.  "Gyro Flies Pepsi" came the response from the line cook and beverage server.  Much like the old "Cheeseburger" sketch on Saturday Night Live, the Greek immigrants' broken English dialog continued for orders of Gyros, French Fries, other Greek goodies and Pepsi-Cola.

Across the street was The Parthenon, and for years competition ensued for the best Gyro in Madison...and DAMN were they good.  I'd long for gyro goodness and make a trek whenever I got the craving...often this meant a drive of one, two, even three hours, depending on where I was living at the time.   Later, I'd find Gyro Nirvana once again at a little place on North Ave. on the E. Side of Milwaukee called "Grecian Delight".

But it's always been a challenge, outside of a select few places, to find a decent Gyro...harder yet to try to make one at home.  The 'kits' that are available at the grocery store are awful by comparison and barely even attempt to scratch the Gyro Itch.  Most restaurants and bars that offer a Gyro on the menu do so apparently with the sole intention of miserably disappointing their customers.

So a few years ago, I set out to create the perfect Gyro at home.  Research on the web combined with trial and error resulted in recipes for both making the Gyro meat loaf and the Tarziki Sauce that tastes just like those wonderous late night sandwiches that I crave.  And now you can make 'em at home too.

This is not a procedure for an evening after a long, hard day at work.  Both the sauce and meat take time and effort, but are well worth it.  I'd suggest making up a bunch of meat on a Saturday (you can always freeze it and thaw it later for quicker preparation), and the Tarziki Sauce keeps in the fridge for quite a while.

For meat, the truly authentic way to make it is with Lamb.  Of course, if you've priced Lamb lately, you'll know why both the cost of a Gyro in a restaurant has skyrocketed and the quality has gone down.  It's expensive, and restaurants often now mix in beef or pork with the lamb to offset costs.  That's ok, you can do that too.  I've made it with a 50/50 mix of lamb and beef, lamb and pork, and even all pork.  The seasonings and method of preparation really make for about 85% of the flavor.  If you really want the real deal, you'll need a couple pounds of lamb meat.

**Update:  According to...ahem...Wikipedia, gyros in Greece are mainly made with pork nowadays.

I have a meat grinder, so I buy whatever is on sale.  If you don't have a grinder, get ground lamb, beef or pork, or buy a roast and have the butcher grind it for you (most will do this for free).

If you're going to make all of this the same day that you wish to serve it, start early and start with the Tarziki Sauce.  Get the cukes sweating and the yogurt straining, then start on your meat.  While the meat is in the oven, finish your sauce.

You'll have to buy Pita bread as I don't have a recipe for that (yet!), but for christ sakes, don't buy that god-awful stuff that's cut in half.  This isn't a pocket sandwich.  You want whole pitas.  Larger stores will have flatbread specifically for Gyros...I know Woodmans in WI does.

UPDATE 08/28/2015:  Incredibly AWESOME Pita Bread Recipe....CLICK HERE.

Ok, on to the recipes!

Tarziki Sauce

Ingredients:

2 Cucumbers - peeled, seeded and sliced
2 T minced Garlic
1/2 T Salt
3 T Lemon Juice
2 T Dill (dried, or a bunch of fresh dill)
1 32oz container of Greek Yogurt (Plain)

Start by dumping the Greek yogurt into a screened strainer that will hold all of it and placing that over an appropriate sized bowl.  You can use regular yogurt, but it will be harder to strain (you might try a cloth) and it will take a lot longer.  Greek yogurt is much thicker, and the point of straining it is to remove as much liquid as possible to make it even thicker still.  Greek yogurt used to be hard to find, but now I can even find it in Sturgeon Bay (under the Roundy's brand, even!) so if you can't get it by you, ask your grocer.   Also, you want Plain yogurt.  Not Vanilla.  Unlike Ice Cream, vanilla does not equal plain.   Once your plain Greek yogurt is straining over a bowl, set aside.

Now take the two cucumbers, peel them, cut them in half down the length and then take a spoon and scoop all the watery seedy part out, til just the firm flesh is left.  Now slice that up into about 1/2" slices and put in a colander and toss with about 1 T of salt, and set over the sink for about an hour.   At this time, you'll probably want to start on the meat.

When at least an hour has passed, you should have a surprising amount of liquid strained out of the yogurt.  Toss out the liquid and put the yogurt in a bowl.  Take the cukes out of the colander and put in a food processor along with the garlic, salt, dill and lemon juice.  If using fresh dill, just toss a bunch in.  Using fresh dill is preferred, but trickier as it's hard to measure.  The balance of flavor when you are all done should be about equal between dill, sourness of the yogurt and garlicky saltiness.  Anyway, run the food processor and chop this all together into a fine mix.

Now dump this mix into a clean thin cloth over a bowl and gently bring the corners up and around to form a bag.  Let the juice strain off and gently squeeze, but not too much.  You don't want all the liquid out of this, just whatever will naturally strain off plus a gentle squeeze.

Remove from the cloth and stir in thoroughly with the yogurt in the bowl.  Adjust dill (if necessary) and other seasonings to taste.   Put mixture back into the yogurt container and refrigerate until it's time to serve.

Gyro Meat

Ingredients

2 pounds of ground meat...any mix of lamb, beef or pork, or all lamb.
1 medium to small onion
1 T Garlic Powder
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 T Black Pepper
1 T Marjoram
1 T Oregano
1 T Rosemary
1 T Thyme
1 T Cumin

Cut up the onion and put in a food processor and process finely.  Scrape out onto clean towel and bring corners up to form a bag.  Squeeze out as much juice as possible.

In a large bowl, mix ground meat, onion and seasonings thoroughly.

Line a 9X13 Pyrex dish with a clean terry dish or bath towel soaked in hot water.  In a Pyrex bread or loaf pan greased with olive oil, place the meat mixture to form a loaf.  Set the loaf pan in the center of the 9X13 pan, on top of the towel.  Boil enough water on the stove to fill all around the loaf pan til the 9x13 pan is full.   Pour the boiling water all around the loaf pan inside of the 9X13.  Carefully place in a preheated 325 oven, bake for 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool, remove from pan.  Grill outside on grill till all sides have that nice crusty thing going on that a rotisserie gyro loaf would have.  Bring back inside.

UPDATE 08/05/2022:
If you can find an old Ronco rotisserie in a thrift store, GET IT.  You can put a gyro loaf on the rotissierie and it's just like the Greek restaurant ones, only horizontal.   Then you REALLY get that authentic flavor.  Do this instead of grilling the loaf and then frying the strips.

Serve by slicing thin slices off of the loaf.   Put a large fry pan on the stove on medium-high heat with a little olive oil in it.  Toss a whole pita into the fry pan and brown each side.  At the same time, toss in enough slices of meat for one sandwich, flipping at least once.   Lay the pita on a plate, lay out the meat, some sliced tomato, sliced sweet onion (Vidalia or 1055) on one half of the Pita and place a dollop of Tarziki Sauce on the opposite half.  Fold up like a taco and dig in!!!   You can also garnish with slices of cucumber and/or feta cheese, to your liking.  French fries on the side to dip into more Tarziki sauce and waalaa, it's 1980 and you're back on State Street in Madison again!