Fake Gyro's

I used to work at a restaurant that was ran by a Greek family. The restaurant was fantastic, the bar is a fun place to be, and the food was amazing. Even more than the place itself, the people that I worked with are great! The Greek family that runs the place quickly became part of my extended family and I still remain close with them. The reason I bring this up is because while I was there I often ate or tried new Greek food, mainly the Gyro. This literally is one of my favorite foods and I really only ate it there! It really isn’t easy to make an authentic gyro at home, or at least the fantastic way that they do it, so I figured I would come up with a way so I could sort of have the same thing.

I decided to buy some ground lamb that I found at the grocery store. I have never seen this before but mainly because I was not looking for it. The flavor is amazing so if you haven’t tried it, you should. I also bought some whole wheat naan bread (obviously naan is not a pita, but it will do the job … plus I had previously bought it for another dish I made earlier in the week, and a dish I am making later in the week).  So I decided to make my version of a Fake Gyro.

I took the naan flatbread, wrapped it in foil, and put it in the oven with the temperature set at 250 just to warm the flatbread through:

Then in a skillet, I sprayed olive oil cooking spray, and sautéed sliced onion until it was soft. I then added the white part of a scallion (mostly because I love scallions and did not want them to go bad since I bought them for another dish) and let those sauté with the onions. I also added ginger (every time I say I use ginger, I am really using ginger paste which is very convenient and I have a picture below) and let that mix with the onions:

 

After those were sautéed, I added yellow curry sauce (also pictured below). I know that curry sauce is not really a traditional gyro ingredient, but I love curry and like to do things a bit different, or “drum to the beat of my own song” as my mom likes to say [or something like that].  The sauce not only gives the dish great flavor, but it makes a thick coating sauce to cover the meat:

Then I move the sauce to one side of the pan, and brown the lamb meat in the other side. Once the lamb is cooked, I mix the meat with the sauce, season with salt [and pepper if you want], and taste to make sure I like the way it tastes so far. Another nontraditional gyro thing that I did was add a bag of frozen green peas (I let them defrost a bit). The only reason I did this, well three reasons really, is because I love peas, I wanted to add a bit more nutritional value, and the peas allow the meal to make some more “gyros”. One pound of lamb meat is a little more expensive than other ground meats so by adding something else we get more for our money and still get great flavor:

I served the dish by putting the naan on a plate and served the “gyro” mix in a bowl on the side so everyone can make their own Gyro (this would also be good in lettuce wraps):

To put on the Gyro, I had chopped tomato on the side, Greek yogurt, and oregano. When I made up my mock gyro, it looked like this:

I can honestly say that this meal was delicious. It definitely is not a street corner gyro or a gyro from Harry’s (where I used to work), but it had all the delicious flavors that are composed in a gyro. I didn’t make the cucumber sauce that is usually on a gyro but the Greek yogurt was perfect! So this may not be your typical Greek classic dish, but I’m pretty proud of my own creation. If I am ever REALLY craving a REAL gyro, you can find me at Harry’s, but until then, my Fake Gyro out of Newlywed Kitchen will be just fine !

TIP: if you want some really great food, check out Harry’s. http://www.harryshotdogs.com/ they have an amazing staff, awesome food, 2 full bars, a grill, and the crowd is fantastic. You can always see Harry walking around (which is my favorite part) and you will ALWAYS get great food.