Opa! Hooray for the Gyro!

After much debate, R and I made gyros on Saturday night for dinner, served with wedges of russet potato from the world's largest baking potatoes.

To make the gyro meat, we embarked on a 400-step process. First, we drove to Whole Foods where we purchased a 4 pound boneless leg of lamb. Next, we walked the streets for a few hours to pay for said meat. Haha, just kidding.

We then went home and ground up the meat, again using our trusty Kitchenaid grinder. Then, following Alton's recipe, we blitzed an onion in the food processor, then mixed said onion with the meat, some garlic, rosemary, herbes de provence, salt, and pepper and blitzed that mixture in the food processor until it formed a chunky meat paste. Mmm. Meat paste. The meat paste was pressed into a bread baking tin (see left), similar to a meatloaf, then baked at 325 degrees for about 65 minutes. After baking, we wrapped another baking tin in aluminum foil, then placed that tin over the meatloaf and put several bottles of booze in the baking tin to press down on the loaf. After 20 minutes of pressing, the loaf is removed from the pan and sliced thinly (see right). We served the gyro meat on warm pitas with tzatziki sauce, feta, tomatoes, lettuce, and Vidalia onions.

Meanwhile, we cut two large russet potatoes into big wedges. On a rimmed baking sheet, we tossed the wedges with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. We put the wedges in the oven at the same time as the gyro meat, but while the gyro meat was being pressed, cranked the oven up to 450 degrees.

Overall, a fabulously tasty meal, but definitely not something to do on a Tuesday night (notice the new white Fiesta).