Pork Gyros

Pork Gyros

Some time ago i found the NYT Cooking Newsletter. Every week since, an extraordinary variety of very good recipes to try hit my email. I had my first Gyro in the Platka of Athens as an 18 year old sailor, and fell in love. But not enough to buy one of this pork/lamb rotisserie things that make them with on the street. This will work for me.

Ingredients:

2 ½ lbs pork shoulder (at the asian market get the pork already sliced a skip step 1).
~ 2 Tbs lemon juice
¼ cup plus 1 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
8 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 medium-size tomato
2 medium-size yellow onions, peeled
1 t Tbs plus 1 tsp smoked or sweet paprika
1 Tbs kosher salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ tsp oregano leaves
1 cucumber and onion sliced thin (for assembly)
1 medium tomato, diced (for assembly)
Tzatziki Sauce – easy to make – Recipe

Directions:

  1. Put pork shoulder on a plate, and place in the freezer for approximately 1 hour, or until it is firm to the touch. Put meat on a cutting board, and using a sharp knife, remove and discard any skin, then slice the meat thinly against the grain, into 1/2-inch slices.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, 1/4 cup olive oil and garlic. Box grate the tomato and one of the onions into the marinade, then add 1 Tbs of the paprika, along with the salt, pepper and oregano leaves. Whisk again (Or you could put all that stuff in your blender and pulse until mostly smooth).
  3. Place the sliced pork into the marinade, toss to combine and cover and refrigerate the meat for at least one hour and up to overnight
  4. When ready to cook, heat oven to 450. Use the remaining Tbs of olive oil to grease a rimmed sheet pan.
  5. Slice the remaining onion, add it to the pork and toss in marinade to combine. Remove the pork and onion from the marinade, and place on the pan, spreading everything evenly across it. Discard remaining marinade.
  6. Roast pork until browned, crisp at the edges and cooked through, ~ 30-40 minutes. Check the meat at around 20 minutes. If there is a lot of liquid pour off all but a few tablespoons. Remove the finished pork and chop into bite sized bits. Scatter the remaining paprika over the top of the meat.

Assemble your gyro with warm pita, thin sliced cucumbers, onions, diced tomato and tzatziki sauce, Enjoy with crispy French fries on the side.