After much planning and many safety checks, we were able to cook together this week for Dinner Thymes 2. Marisa is here in New Jersey so we chose something that is a little daunting to both of us, making pitas from scratch. For that, we did use a recipe from Breaking Breads by Uri Sheft. The pitas take about two hours but they were delicious and soft with just the right amount of chewiness. It may take us a bit more practice to just get one pocket per pita, we had a few small bubbles. Never the less, it was fun to do it together and the pitas were still a great vessel for the lamb. Of course, you can always pick up pitas at the market.
We created a marinade from a whole lemon using the food processor and mixed it with garlic, oregano, and a little rosemary along with olive oil, salt and pepper. We rubbed it onto a butterflied boneless leg of lamb and let it marinade in the frig for six hours. Then all we had to do was let it come to room temp and roast it while we made the pitas, tzatziki, and fixings. The tzatziki was very simple to make using greek yogurt shredded cucumber, garlic, lemon and mint . This would also make a great dip or accompaniment for any Greek dish. We would definitely make each of these again whether together or separately.
Roasted Lamb Gyro W/ Tzatziki
Equipment
- food processor
- sheet pan with rack
- box grater
Ingredients
- 4 lb boneless leg of lamb
- 6 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup oregano chopped
- 1 tbsp rosemary chopped
- 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 small head of romaine lettuce cut into ribbons
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 1/2 cup feta cubed
- 6 pitas
Tzatziki
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- 3/4 English cucumber grated and drained
- 2 tsp lemon zest
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbsp mint minced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Butterfly lamb and place into large pan for marinading.
- Place garlic in food processor and pulse a few times, add herbs and pulse again. Cut up the lemon into chunks and place in food processor. Add oil, salt and pepper and process until lemon is pulp like. Spread 1/2 onto the lamb, turn and cover the other half with the remainder of the lemon rub. Cover with plastic wrap and marinade in refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours.
- Preheat oven to 450. Remove lamb from refrigerator so it can come to room temperature which should take about 30 minutes. Place lamb onto rimmed baking sheet covered with aluminum foil and with a rack on top. Place in oven for 15 minutes then lower temp to 400 and continue roasting for 40 to 50 minutes. Remove and let rest covered for 15 to 20 minutes.
- While lamb is roasting cut lettuce, tomatoes, and feta and prepare tzatziki sauce. (Recipe follows).
Tzatziki
- Grate cucumber on box grater, place onto clean kitchen towel and squeeze out as much of the liquid as possible. Place into medium bowl and add Greek yogurt, lemon zest, garlic, mint, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Building your Gyro
- Thinly slice lamb.
- Split pita or use as you would a tortilla without splitting. Place on plate and stuff with a couple of the slices of lamb, a tablespoon or two of tzatziki, lettuce, tomatoes and feta.
