project food blog #2: going greek - gyros + tzatziki

my addiction to mediterranean food started in college... well, not everything actually. i only like this pita wrapped goodness called shawarma. but when i left the philippines in 2006, i was forced to quit that addiction cold turkey because i couldn't find a place near me that sells it. well at least a place that i can walk to because i did not know how to drive then. i did fine for a few years but then, i saw this mediterranean chain restaurant and decided to go there because they had something that looked like what i used to eat in the philippines but they called it gyro. it was okay, i guess i was expecting a little bit too much from this chain restaurant, but hey it's a chain restaurant... i should've known better.


after that experience, i obsessed about gyros. i looked it up and read up on it a lot. when i say a lot, i mean more than a day cumulatively. i go crazy like that when i get into something. anyway, after reading up on it, i realized that it's basically like shawarma, just with tzatziki. imagine my relief when i found out about this fact, because gyros would be a lot easier to find, plus, i love me some tzatziki.

so when i read that the next project food blog challenge was to make something outside of your culinary comfort zone, i immediately thought of making gyros. i haven't had it in a while and making it for this challenge means i can eat as much as my heart desires (i could care less what my tummy says, if i explode, then i explode). the search for a really good recipe started this weekend, and it was fun looking for a recipe that had wonderful reviews, but most of the recipes i came across had different marinade ingredients. as frustrating as it was, i realized that finding a really authentic recipe would be really hard since gyros were adapted from different places in the mediterranean. i decided to get ideas from about ten recipes that i found and make a spice blend that would stay true to what most of them said about the flavors they wanted to achieve. i also tried to remember the flavors and the aroma of greek restaurants that had the gyro meat on vertical rotisserie. sweet, floral, tangy, smoky and meaty comes to mind when remembering my experience of biting into a foil wrapped gyro at a greek restaurant. so with that in mind i looked at all the spices i had on top of the microwave and went from there.

i started shopping for the ingredients i needed yesterday and even though i have decided to make my own pita, i still bought some for emergency - which actually paid off because my attempt on making pita failed miserably. my pita did not puff up after i put it on a hot baking stone onside the oven. i ended up with flatbread, which i just used to sample the tzatziki i was making. anyway, failures aside (not really, it's still bugging me up until now), the meat which i cooked in the oven turned out really good - sweet, smoky and meaty.

as i have said, i also made tzatziki, which is a yogurt based sauce. i did not know that you had to strain the water out of the yogurt and cucumber before making it, so i had to make it twice. the second time i made it, it was great, thick and a little chunky from the cucumber, just the way i like it. many tzatziki recipes stated that you should process the cucumber to a puree to achieve a very smooth consistency, but i like cucumber chunks on my sauce so i shredded the cucumbers and strained it.

making gyros on a 99-degree weather day was a feat on itself. having the oven at 375 and chopping up vegetable in the kitchen with a window that lets all the light (and heat) in is crazy. but as crazy hot as it was, biting into the finished gyro was very rewarding. the smoky and sweet beef, the tangy and cool tzatziki and the crisp vegetables made all the effort.... okay and standing int the hot kitchen totally worth it.

oh another thing, randall (the dog) is doing a lot better now, after his surgery, he recovered really fast. now, he's back to his old self. thanks everyone for the well wishes.

by the way, i just want to thank everyone that voted for me. you guys made it possible for me to post for this challenge, and if you still like what i just posted and would love to see more, then please vote for me again starting tomorrow september 27, 6am to september 30, 6pm. oh, and if you don't know how to vote or want more information about the competition, just go over to foodbuzz.com, sign up and go to my profile and vote. the link to my foodbuzz profile on my sidebar or you can click here. thanks again everyone!!!

beef gyros + tzatziki sauce

what you need:

beef + marinade
2 lbs ground or chopped up beef or lamb
1 medium sized yellow onion, diced finely
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground cloves
5 cardamom seeds or 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil

tzatziki sauce
16 oz greek yogurt
2 cucumbers, peeled and shredded
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 garlic cloves mashed into a paste
salt and pepper to taste

gyro
lettuce, chopped
tomatoes, diced
red onion, sliced into strips
crumbled feta cheese

what to do:

beef + marinade
1. combine all the ingredients under beef + marinade in a large bowl, miz everything all together, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (let it sit overnight and the flavors will be a lot better).
2. preheat oven at 375 degrees and put the meat in an oven safe dish and cook for about 30 minutes. keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't dry out. you can also cook it on top of your stove over medium high heat until the meat is browned all over.
3. set aside for assembly.

tzatziki
1. put a cheesecloth or 2 paper towels inside a strainer, suspend it over a bowl and pour out 16 oz of greek yogurt into it.
2. let it sit inside the refrigerator for an hour to drain out most of the water.
3. shred cucumbers and with another cheesecloth or paper towel, squeeze out the water off of it. and out it into the yogurt.
4. add garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper. fold everything into the yogurt and it's ready to be slathered on top of the gyro you're about to assemble.

assembly
1. warm up some pita in the microwave for 15 seconds or on the stove top for about a minute.
2. put lettuce, meat, onion, tomatoes, feta cheese and tzatziki into the pita.
3. wrap half of pita with aluminum foil or parchment paper for easy handling and devouring.
4. eat more than one!