Pork gyros

Name: Pork gyros
Cook time: 48 min
Total time: 48 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Griega
Ingredients: 5 tablespoons Olive oil; 2 u Tomato; 4 cloves Garlic; 600 g Potato; Salt; Black pepper; 1 u Red Onions; 1 l Sunflower Oil; 2 teaspoons Paprika; 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin; 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice; 250 g Greek Yogurt; 2 teaspoons Oregano; 800 g Pork Shoulder; 0.5 u Cucumber; 1 tablespoon Dill; 4 u Pita Bread

Gyros de cerdo

Medium

Incomplete allergen information: some ingredients have not been reviewed yet. Always check the labels before cooking.

Author: Equipo Cocinoa
Preparation time: 48 min
Servings: 4

Summary

The gyros eaten on the street all over Greece, made at home: pork shoulder marinated with garlic, lemon and oregano, seared over a high heat and wrapped in pitta with tzatziki, tomato, red onion and chips tucked inside.

Ingredients

4 servings

Add to Bring!

5 tablespoons Olive oil (4 for the marinade and 1 for the tzatziki)
2 u Tomato (cut into wedges)
4 cloves Garlic (3 for the marinade and 1 for the tzatziki)
600 g Potato
Salt (to taste)
Black pepper (freshly ground, to taste)
1 u Red Onions (thinly sliced)
1 l Sunflower Oil (for deep-frying)
2 teaspoons Paprika (sweet)
1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
250 g Greek Yogurt
2 teaspoons Oregano (dried, plus a little extra for the chips)
800 g Pork Shoulder (boneless, cut into 5 mm steaks)
0.5 u Cucumber
1 tablespoon Dill (fresh, chopped, or mint)
4 u Pita Bread (Greek-style, thick and without a pocket)

Instructions

In a bowl, mix 4 tablespoons of the oil, 3 grated garlic cloves, the lemon juice, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Coat the pork steaks thoroughly, cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours, ideally overnight.
For the tzatziki, grate the cucumber with its skin on, salt it and, after a few minutes, squeeze it hard in a clean tea towel. Mix it with the yoghurt, the remaining grated garlic, 1 tablespoon of oil, the dill and salt. Keep it in the fridge.
10 min
Peel the potatoes, cut them into 1 cm chips, rinse them in cold water and dry them very well. Fry them in the sunflower oil at 160 °C until tender but not coloured, then drain. Just before serving, fry them again at 180 °C until golden and crisp, and season with salt and a pinch of oregano.
15 min
Heat a cast-iron pan or griddle over a high heat with a drizzle of oil. Sear the meat in batches, without crowding the pan, until cooked through and well browned at the edges. Let it rest for a couple of minutes, then cut it into thin strips.
15 min
Warm the pittas in the same pan, brushed with the meat juices, until soft with a few golden spots.
3 min
Lay each pitta on a piece of baking paper, spread the middle with tzatziki and top with the meat, tomato, onion and a handful of chips. Roll it into a cone, wrap the base in the paper and serve straight away.
5 min

Notes

Gyros means turn in Greek: at the stalls the meat is stacked on a slowly rotating vertical spit and shaved off in slices, like the Turkish döner it descends from. Souvlaki, on the other hand, is cubes of meat threaded onto skewers and grilled; to confuse matters, in Athens any rolled pitta is called a souvlaki, whatever is inside. In Greece the most common gyros is pork, though chicken is popular too. At home there is no spit, so the trick is to cut the meat into thin steaks, marinate it well and sear it in batches in a very hot cast-iron pan, so it chars at the edges instead of stewing in its juices. You can also roast it at 220 °C on a rack for about 20 minutes, turning it halfway. The chips inside the pitta are not a whim: that is how it is served there. Use Greek-style pitta, thick and without a pocket; the Arabic kind is too thin to roll. Squeeze the cucumber well so the tzatziki is not watery. The cooked meat keeps for 2 days in the fridge.