Norman’s Gyros

Norman’s Gyros

Over the weekend I made gyros for my housemates. I didn't have leftover roast lamb. I started from scratch with a boneless leg of lamb, butterflied and grilled. Usually when I make gyros, I make it like this, using leftover roast lamb.

One of my favorite meals will always be lamb roasted rare with mashed potatoes and gravy. I probably make that two or three times per month. One problem with that is sometimes there isn’t enough leftover gravy to serve the second or third dinner. I’ve come up with this easy way to serve leftover roast ham.

Do you like gyros? Lots of places serve it. If you live in a major metropolitan area, many of the little hot dog stands also serve gyros. They have the meat in a roll on a vertical stick with heating elements forming a V around the meat to keep it hot. As good as the gyros are from these places, this version is better because it uses real roast lamb.

The secret to this is to have the lamb nice and rare. It cooks fast because you want the onions warmed up, not cooked. Another secret is to use real Greek yogurt. It is much thicker than domestic yogurt and is perfect for this.

Olive oil

1 lb. rare roast lamb, sliced very thin

1 large onion, sliced very thin

1 clove of garlic, smashed and minced fine

1 tomato, thinly sliced

1 package of pita breads

Cajun seasoning (Slap your Mamma is best)

Greek yogurt 

Preparation

This is fairly easy to prepare. Get a large cast iron skillet and heat it over medium high heat until hot. Warm the pita breads in the skillet, about a half minute per side. Set them on a platter under a towel to keep warm.

Add a little layer of olive oil to the hot cast iron pan and then add the sliced lamb. Sprinkle it with Cajun seasoning and keep stirring until the meat is hot. Add the garlic and sliced onion and stir for one minute. Remove the skillet from the heat.

Serving

To serve your gyros, take a hot pita and put a generous portion of Greek yogurt on the pita. Use tongs to pile the meat and onion high on the pita. Add a couple slices of tomato. Top with more yogurt. Make sure you have a pile of napkins ready. Gently fold the gyros into a U shape and eat carefully over your plate. It will make a mess, but is worth it.

Along with the gyros, serve a greek salad with feta cheese, kalamata olives, pepperoncini peppers with a vinegar and olive oil dressing. A light bodied Greek or Italian Red will round out this nice lunch. A fruit salad for dessert wouldn’t hurt either.