I must try Gyros

[asudavew]

In another thread, Jeff brought up cooking on a spit.

And I like gyros. The meat is made from a lamb/beef mixture (me thinks) And it's cooked on a spit. Seems like a great item to cook in my WFO.

Doe's anyone here have a recipe for gyros.

I am pretty handy at cooking the pitas.

And I make a really good tsatsiki sauce.

But I have NEVER been able to duplicate the meat.

Help! I have a serious craving here, and no Greek food for 200 miles!

Happy 2008 New Year!

May life shine on all of you for the upcoming year!

Dave

[gjbingham]

Re: I must try Gyros

Dave:
Cooks.com - Recipe - Gyros

Let me know how it turns out.
G.

[christo]

Re: I must try Gyros

Dave,

I had thought about putting a rotisserie in my oven, my initial plan was to drill/leave a 3/4 inch hole directly in the back of the oven and mount a bearing roughly the same size on the end of the spit. The motor and rotissiere would mount and reside out the door. I gave up on that idea as I felt it was impractical.

Then I thought a rotissere assy that would fit through the door opening as a unit and drive outside via a speedometer cable might work....

My new grill has a rotisserie so I did not take the idea any further!!!

I can't wait to see what you come up with!!

Christo

[rtnaw]

Re: I must try Gyros

Dave,

I love gyros, when my local county fair comes to town there is a genuine Greek stand that makes incredible gyros. Until that time comes, I use a recipe that I happened across while watching one of my favorite chefs on the food network-Alton Brown. If you go to Foodtv.com type gyros into the search field and look for the recipe by Alton Brown. I have made it several times with great success. They turn out quite well.

Thanks,
Tom

[Acoma]

Re: I must try Gyros

Dave, those are so delicious! I may impliment one for my outdoor kitchen. So now it is: Smoker, charcoal grill, double burner for stews/ sauces, Gyro device. Talk about entertainment and fun! You need to get one.

[asudavew]

Re: I must try Gyros

Dave,

I love gyros, when my local county fair comes to town there is a genuine Greek stand that makes incredible gyros. Until that time comes, I use a recipe that I happened across while watching one of my favorite chefs on the food network-Alton Brown. If you go to Foodtv.com type gyros into the search field and look for the recipe by Alton Brown. I have made it several times with great success. They turn out quite well.

Thanks,
Tom

Thanks a bunch.
I will try it out this weekend!

Dave

[asudavew]

Re: I must try Gyros

Dave, those are so delicious! I may impliment one for my outdoor kitchen. So now it is: Smoker, charcoal grill, double burner for stews/ sauces, Gyro device. Talk about entertainment and fun! You need to get one.

Yes, WFOs are quite the mulititaskers!

So much more versatile than a grill, smoker, or home oven!
Quite unique.

[BaconGrease]

Re: I must try Gyros

I made the recipe from Alton Brown's Good eats on my rotisserie grill, Turned out very good.Food Network: Gyro Meat with Tzatziki Sauce

[stuart]

Re: I must try Gyros

Hey Dave,

I love gyros and now you have me salivating at the thought of making my own at home. Can you share your recipe for pitas? I did find one at About.com but I'd like to hear more about cooking them in the WFO if you can give advice.

Stuart

[Acoma]

Re: I must try Gyros

Stuart, it should not be long before Chef WFO (Dave) responds

[asudavew]

Re: I must try Gyros

Hey Dave,

I love gyros and now you have me salivating at the thought of making my own at home. Can you share your recipe for pitas? I did find one at About.com but I'd like to hear more about cooking them in the WFO if you can give advice.

Stuart

I just use the basic WFO pizza recipe.
flour, water, salt, yeast - no oil ( I do use half the salt though) So..
500 gr flour (hi protein)
300 gr water
3 gr yeast
10 gr salt

I let it raise once. (double)
Then I divide it into about 8-10 dough balls.

Now with pizza, I never use a rolling pin.
But with pitas, I do. I roll them out very thin with plenty of flour.
Probably an 1/8th of an inch thick is normal for me.

Then while my WFO is building heat for pizza, I cook them just inside the entry. I do, however, wait to cook them until the floor is pretty hot.
Then I just throw them on the floor. After 45 seconds or so, they will really poof up! Then I use some long tongs, and flip them over for another 30 seconds or so. -- Cooking time is really dependent on oven temps.
But it just takes a little practice. And dough is cheap to make, so.... if you burn a few no biggie.

I usually serve these for appetizers. I make 2 dipping sauces to go along side.

If you would like those recipes, I would be happy to post them.

BTW - I used to make the pitas on a stone in the oven. 500f.
Or a cast iron skillet also works on top of the stove.

Let me know how it turns out for you.

Dave

[arevalo53anos]

Re: I must try Gyros

To bake sweet pizza (chocolate with strawberry or cinnamon and banana, as example) the first thing is to pre-bake the crust by 20 or 30 seconds.
If a little distracted, at those high temperatures, voil&#225;, there was born a big pita <g>
The best pita, for me, is the one prepared on an iron skillet on the stove.
Please, take a look in YouTube, searching by pita bread and you could reach an Indian lady (do not remember the name right now) that had made an excellent video with the original recipe.

Luis

[Loren]

Re: I must try Gyros

I am getting hungry just thinking about Gyros. I will have to try the Aloton Brown recipe and the pita.

Loren

[asudavew]

Re: I must try Gyros

I tried the recipe on Sunday.
I wasn't too happy with it.
I'm gonna rework it in a few weekends.
I think it needed more salt, more pepper, and half the amount of marjoram. I would also add some garlic and oregano.

I think the texture was also wrong. It was more like meatloaf and less like gyros.

Although I do love the show "Good Eats", I have never been really happy with any of the recipes.

I think gyro meat may have to be treated more like a sausage concoction. I'm thinking a few days of curing might do the trick.
I'll let everyone know what I come up with. Maybe some Morton's Tender Quick Cure, will be... well... ........ I guess it will be ........the cure!

sorry bout that

dave

[Loren]

Re: I must try Gyros

I will go ahead and try the recipe and make a few changes. The rotisserie would cook the lamb much better, however it would be difficult to have the mixture stay intact on the skewer. It is hard to beat the vertical rotisserie method that the gyro places use, slowly turning in front of the heat and self basting. The meat is also sliced thin and when cut off the skewer it has a much different consistency than ground lamb.

Dave, I must agree with you about Alton Brown. His science is great but a lot of his recipes are not so good once you try them. although I have kept a couple that have worked out very well. I really like the way he explains the science part of cooking. I watched his show last night on baking bread and he used a large flower pot bottom instead of a pizza stone in the oven. It looked like there was not much crust on the bottom of the bread, too thin of a piece of pottery if you ask me... I still really like the show though.

Loren