Gyros

My friend Brittany over at B-ing paleo fabulous and I had a friendly little cook off for a going away party. Two of our friends are moving to Georgia to open up their own crossfit gym and they had a surprise going away party. Brian had said he wanted gyros. I thought it would be fun to bring these to surprise them and see our two takes on the gyro, Brittany agreed.

These are my gyros that I brought to the party. Brittany’s gyros are here on her site. We got to the party late so I didn’t get to try hers but they looked really good. She went with the authentic lamb meat. I used a combination of beef and pork. She did a pulled meat and I tried to go with ground meat on a rotisserie.

Brian was of course very diplomatic and said they were both great. So we may never know who won. It was; however, fun, challenging, and delicious. I think we might have to pair up again to try something else exciting Brittany makes such good food that she’s a good motivator.

Gyros

2.5 lbs of beef

.5 lbs of pork jowl (pretty much bacon)

1 onion finely processed and drained

1 tbsp of fresh thyme

1tbsp of fresh rosemary

1 tbsp of parsley

1 tsp of marjoram

1 tsp of red pepper

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp black pepper

7 cloves of garlic

juice of one lemon

Tzaziki Sauce

1 can of coconut milk

¼ red onion

1 tbsp fresh mint

4 garlic cloves

juice of one lemon

To me authentic gyros are the kind that are ground and cooked over an open rotisserie. Then when you want some you shave off some meat and add fresh veggies, feta, and tzaziki sauce. So that is what I tried to do here. After some research into how to achieve this method I set forth. I blended all the ingredients until it was a paste.

Then I tightly wrapped the meat in plastic wrap.

It was kind of like twisting a candy wrapper to get it tight.

Then I placed a heavy cook book on top of that.

The point of all this is to make a tight compact loaf that you can then skewer and rotisserie. I refrigerated my meat loaf over night to let the flavors meld and to squish the daylights out of it. The next morning I skewered the meat and placed it in my rotisserie.

T had very pessimistic views about the meat staying on the skewer. I had my fingers crossed. I mean it worked for Alton Brown! But, T was correct. It fell off after a few minutes of cooking.

So I left it on the tray and let it cook for 1.5 hours at 350 until cooked through.

When it was done I sliced it thin. Traditionally you’d eat this with pita bread. I went with romaine lettuce to keep it primal.

To assemble you take a leaf of romaine, some slices of meat, red onion sliced thin, tomatoes, cucumbers, feta crumbles (omit if you are paleo), and the tzaziki sauce (traditionally a yogurt based dressing but again, I wanted to keep it as paleo as possible). Here is Brian enjoying his second gyro of the day. I was really happy with the final product. I think it had all the flavors that I was looking for in a gyro. Next time I might try to just cook it in a loaf pan.

Brian and Sabrina we will miss you and wish you the best of luck in Savannah!

Lemon Ginger Chicken

This is a delicious recipe that doesn’t take much prep work. We had a lot of lemons left over from a cocktail party last weekend and I thought this was a good way to use a couple up. My chicken was still partially frozen when I began cooking it so my cooking time will not be your cooking time. Plus these chicken breasts must have come from the adult industry of chickens! Seriously one was about twice the size of a normal one.

4 hulking chicken breasts

1 lemon sliced thin with seeds removed

Juice of one lemon

1/2  onion sliced thin

1″ of ginger minced

3 cloves of garlic minced (I threw the ginger and garlic together with olive oil in a food processor)

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Rub garlic, ginger, and olive oil all over breasts. Place breasts in a baking pan. Layer the onions over the chicken breasts, then the lemon slices on top of that. Finish by squeezing the remaining lemon over the dish.

Cover with tinfoil and bake for 2 hours at 350. Again mine were slightly frozen and huge. Normal sized, thawed, breasts will take about half that time. As always check for doneness with a meat thermometer.

About ten minutes before you serve dinner pour off the juices that have cooked out into a small sauce pan. Add a tbsp of butter and heat to high heat. While the juices are reducing down, make a roux with flour* and water in a small bowl. You will need about 2 Tbsp of flour to about 4 Tbsp of water. When combined add to the juices to make gravy.

We served this over saffron rice*. It was a beautiful bright dish with bright flavors.

*The addition of flour and rice are not paleo. If you wanted to make it paleo make cauliflower rice and use xantham gum as a thickener instead of flour.