Gyros

Thin slices of marinated pork stacked, pressed and roasted as one block, then shaved off the outside.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

For the meat

• 1.2 kg pork shoulder, in 5 mm slices
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

To serve

• 6 pita breads
• tzatziki, as on its own page
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• 1 red onion, sliced thin
• chips, optional
• paprika, to dust

Method

1. IT IS A STACK, NOT A KEBAB, and that is the whole trick for doing it in a domestic oven. A vertical spit works because the outside cooks while the inside stays raw and is shaved away in layers. Pressed into a loaf tin and roasted, a stack of overlapping slices behaves the same way: the outside browns, the middle steams in its own fat, and it is carved thin from the outside in.
2. SO IT IS PRESSED HARD AND WEIGHTED. Loose slices roast into separate dry pieces of pork. Compressed, they fuse into a block that carves. A tin on top with two tins of beans in it, overnight in the fridge, does it.
3. Pork sliced 5 mm thick across the grain. A half-frozen shoulder slices far more evenly than a cold one.
4. Everything else for the meat mixed into a paste and rubbed into every slice, both sides. Covered, fridge, 4 hours minimum and overnight better.
5. A loaf tin lined with cling film hanging over the sides. Slices laid in flat, overlapping like roof tiles, pressing each layer down hard with the knuckles as it goes.
6. Film folded over the top, a tin on top, weighted, and back in the fridge at least 4 hours.
7. Turned out of the tin, film removed, onto a rack over a tray. It should hold together as a loaf.
8. Roasted at 200C for 20 minutes to colour the outside, then down to 160C for 50 minutes more.
9. RESTED 15 MINUTES, which also firms it for carving.
10. Carved in the thinnest slices you can manage, down the outside of the block, as a spit is carved. Thick slices eat like roast pork, which is pleasant and is not this.
11. The slices thrown back onto a very hot dry pan for 60 seconds so the edges crisp -- the step that most home-made versions miss and the one that makes it taste right.
12. Into warm pita with tzatziki, tomato, onion, a dust of paprika and chips if you are doing it properly.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes