Homemade Gyros

 We love gyros but we rarely buy them because they always seem to be filled with greasy mystery meat.  I was thinking about them the other day and realized, why don't I just make my own and then I can control what goes into them.  They turned out to be excellent, best gyros ever!  Start by roughly chopping 1 medium yellow onion and putting it in your food processor.  Add 7 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp. paprika, 1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary, 1 tsp. of ground cumin, 2 tsp. fresh thyme, 1 tsp. of oregano 1 tsp. sea salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add 2 pounds of ground lamb and pulse it until you have a paste.  Put it in a loaf pan and press down to get all of the air bubbles out. Bake at 400 degrees for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The internal temperature should be 165 degrees.

 When it is done cooking, refrigerate it until it is cold.

 Sorry for the blur, I did a really bad job of taking photos for this post.  Once the loaf is cold, slice it thinly and brown the slices in a skillet with a small bit of olive oil.

 I made tzatziki sauce to go with the gyros.  Cut a cucumber in half and scoop out the seeds.

 Grate it and place it in a towels and squeeze it dry.

 Squeeze 1/2 lemon into a bowl.

 Add 1 pint of Greek yogurt, the cucumber, 3 minced garlic cloves, 2 T. diced fresh dill and 1 T. diced fresh mint. 

 Season with salt and pepper and stir it all together.

I made garlic naan to serve it in.  And I forgot to take a pic of the finished gyro.  You need to form a mental picture here but I laid the warm gyro slices down the middle of the warm naan and topped it with lettuce and feta cheese which was sprinkled with a bit of olive oil and white balsamic vinegar.  The tzatziki was served on the side to spoon on before you took each bite. I will post the naan recipe soon.  It is so good and so easy that I have made it several times in the last few days.