Gyro with Tzatziki Sauce


I printed off the recipe for this dish last summer and never had the chance to make it so I was very excited when its page number came out of my random recipe generator. Gyro is basically a meatloaf made from lamb that is usually cooked on a rotisserie. Our barbecue doesn't have a rotisserie so I opted for the oven.

Though gyro is synonymous with Greek cuisine the best guess says that it hails from New York City, where it was first mentioned in print in the 70's. The word gyro comes from the Greek for rotation, like gyroscope, although gyroscope is pronounced with a "j," gyro is pronounced with a "y." Tzatziki on the other hand is very old and very Greek. A sauce made from garlic, cucumber and Greek yogurt. On a side note I highly recommend Greek style yogurt, despite its high price point. It thick and creamy texture cannot be matched by traditional yogurts.

Technically my gyro wasn't really gyro at all since it didn't really do any rotating, but as a meatloaf I would still give it high marks. I am pretty new to lamb so the flavour was new and different for me, a nice departure from the usual ground beef. The loaf came out a little under seasoned but I think that was the chef's fault not the recipes. On a warmed pita with tzatziki, onion and some feta it was a winner in my books. I find gyro at restaurants gets bogged down with too much lettuce and tomato, leaving be thinking "where's the beef?" (or in this case lamb). So I left them out all together, the more meat the better!

Homemade Tzatziki 

As usual the recipe link: Gyro Recipe. Again if anyone has any comments please leave the below.