Greek Week: Gyros

With an abundance of pita bread in the freezer and a few packages of ground lamb from LJ's parents needing a good use, it seemed obvious that I should make some gyros.

LJ has a mild obsession with gryos so I have had a little practice in perfecting my technique and she has been helpful in the process by giving plenty of quality constructive criticism.  I use Alton Brown's meatloaf technique as  a starting point, with a few tweaks that really help the finished product. 

I gathered the ingredients, which mostly are composed of the spices that make it taste like a classic gyro.  The one slightly unusual step is to shred the onion and squeeze out the juices using a towel (a similar technique is used when making potato pancakes).

 
After the onion is de-juiced, it is combined with all the other ingredients in the food processor which does all the combining work.  I'm sure this step could be done by hand but I like the consistent paste that is created in the food processor.

I then placed the lamb mixture in to a loaf pan and place the loaf pan in to a water bath in a preheated oven.

After cooking the lamb for an hour I removed it from the oven, covered it with foil, and placed a weight on top of the meat to allow it to continue to come up to temperature. (We use dried beans for a weight, especially when making crusts for pies and quiches.)  You may also need to pour off any fat that is the loaf pan.

At this point the Alton Brown recipe calls the gyros ready to eat, but I prefer the meat has a bit of a crispy crust so I remove it from the loaf pan and place it under the broiler.  I flip the meat every few minutes until each side has a crispy brown crust.

 

Lastly I slice the meat thin and serve it on warm pita with greens and some yogurt dressing.