One of the things I've found while living in Chicago is the huge amount of Mediterranean restaurants in the city. Gyros are one of my favorite fast foods, but lately in my effort to eat healthier, I've been trying to figure out what in the heck kinda "mystery meat" it is that the cook shaves from the gigantic, brown, well-seasoned mystery meat cylinder. I mean, it tastes great, but I'm guessing if you can demystify the ingredients, you can probably prepare your own gyro that'll taste great, and you'll have comfort in knowing exactly what’s in your sandwich. I did some research on this and found that it’s made of lamb and beef trimmings, spices, water, breadcrumbs and who knows what else. Hey, isn’t that meatloaf?
This weekend, I purchased a butterflied leg of lamb, and the next day even though I had nothing to pair with this meat, I decided to grill half of it and freeze the rest. While searing this beautiful piece of meat, I began to think of the possibilities of creating my own gyro. Here’s what I came up with:
Leg of Lamb Gyro
- 2 lbs. butterflied leg of lamb
- 6 oz. plain Greek yogurt
- 6 pk. whole wheat pitas
- 8 oz. tub of hummus or baba ganoush (Al Khayyam makes the best pitas and hummus in Chicago)
- 1 peeled cucumber - thinly sliced
- 1 thinly sliced red onion
- 3 cloves of garlic - minced
- 2 sliced tomatoes
- 1 tsp. of coarse Kosher salt
- 1 tsp. of black pepper
- 2 tsp. of cumin
- Sriracha to taste – this stuff works on pretty much anything!
First, prepare marinade:
In a plastic bag, mix meat with yogurt, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper, reseal bag and allow to marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours. I prefer to marinate for 5 hours.
Preheat grill on high, remove lamb from marinade and wipe away most of the yogurt. Grill meat for 10 -15 minutes on each side until the lamb is charred on the outside. I prefer medium-well. Remove meat from grill and let it rest for 10 minutes. Wrap pitas in foil and warm for 7 minutes at 350 degrees, then cut pita into quarters. Slice the lamb thinly and serve with a slather of hummus, tomato, cucumber, onions and drizzle with sriracha. Serves 6.
______
Copyright 2009 Chicago Defender. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
