We’re still touring through California, but for those of you hungry for a recipe, here’s a treat we did just before leaving…
One of my favorite lunch foods (when I’m not strictly following lunch.foodmayhem.com) is street meat. I’m talking about lamb shawarma from a cart. One of my favorites in Manhattan is the guy in front of Food Emporium on 14th Street, near Park Ave South. However, he’s always gone when I get home! So I had to take matters into my own hands and make my own–a difficult task when you don’t own a spit.
Don’t think this is the first time I’ve attempted it. I’ve tried several times in the past, most recently using Alton Brown’s recipe. Don’t get me wrong, I love Alton, but his recipes are rarely authentic and his gyro recipe plain ole stinks. So, this time, I went totally back to the drawing board and did lots of research. I finally found a recommendation in Wikipedia, which closely resembles a mix of the various blogs and forums I found. The final spice mixture is below, and we all felt it was extremely authentic.
In addition to choosing the right spice mix was coming up with a cooking technique that was feasible at home, with no rotisserie spit. I ended up forging a cube of tightly packed meat. It was glorious in it’s meaty insanity. But the logistical benefits were strong: it was able to be cooked on a flat surface. First we tried it on the grill, then the oven, and finally we found the best approach was to cook on a flat, cast iron skillet over low heat. Then as outside surfaces char, slice those off and continue cooking the inner parts.
To be honest, this recipe is a lot of work, and for the $5 it costs at a cart, I recommend going that route. But if you want honest, damn good street food at home, this recipe works! This recipe is closer to shawarma in taste, but gyro and shawarma are basically the same thing with slightly different sauces (I’m going to get in trouble for saying this, but it’s true). How do I know that for sure? Some quotes from around the event:
“This is like a dream come true.” – Janny
“I should grab that cube of meat and run down the hall!” – Tim
“buuuurrrrppppp!!!!” – Lon
On to the recipe…
Spice Mix Recipe
Toss together all of the following:
- 3 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- 2 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon hot paprika
- 1 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- pinch (1/8 tsp.) ground cinnamon
- pinch ground nutmeg
- pinch ground allspice
- pinch ground fennel seed
- small pinch (1/16 tsp.) ground coriander seed
Lamb Gyro Recipe
~makes 7 gyros
Ingredients
- 1 pound 14 ounces freshly ground lamb
- The fat trimmings when grinding the lamb (ask your butcher for this or do it yourself, like I did)
- 1/4 cup + 2 teaspoons spice mix (above) (plus a bit extra for sprinkling)
- 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons unseasoned breadcrumbs
- 1/2 yellow onion
Instructions
1. Combine ground lamb, spice mix, and bread crumbs in a large bowl. Combine well with fingers.
2. Divide lamb mixture into four even amounts, form into 4 x 4 inch patties (should be thick).
3. Lay a thin layer of the lamb fat on top of three of the patties, sprinkle some extra spice mix on top. Then stack them atop each other, using the fourth (uncovered) patty as the top of the stack.
4. Shape the block into a cube and press it tightly. Wrap in saran wrap extremely tightly, continuing to keep pressure on. Store in the refrigerator for 24 hours (or at least over night).
5. Heat a seasoned (with oil) cast iron skillet over medium heat and begin unwrapped lamb cube on one face. Place the half onion on top of the cube.
6. Cook each side until thoroughly charred. Remove onion and rotate cube to an uncooked side, replace onion and repeat. Do this until the lamb has cooked on all sides. Using a long knife (preferably a long slicer) shave a thin piece of the edge off and allow to continue cooking on a separate part of the skillet. Continue this on all sides until entire block is cooked and shaved. This took quite a while for us.
7. Serve with homemade pita or store bought (the best is Kontos brand) and your favorite sauces (such as hot sauce or a tzatziki).
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I absolutely love gyros, never thought I’d ever attempt to make them at home, but these look great and easy!
how many peeps can you feel with this chunk of meat? ^_^
feed, I meant. sorry for the typo.
Kim, we almost finished it with 4 people but you should be able to feed 6 to 7. We were all close to passing out.
Oh man. I’ll have to make this now–I literally just salivated. I wish I could follow your lunch suggestions too! Sadly, we have no “lunch” places that don’t involve “#1 with a Coke” or some similar configuration.
Have you had the lamb dish from the guy on 56th and 6th? There is always a HUGE line at peak times, and it is AMAZING. That Lamb Gyro looks SO good
a personal shawarma? sensational. the spice mix must create the most savory, delicious aroma and flavor. i applaud your efforts here!
I love gyros & I have made them also at home!!
This filled pocket looks fab!!
Oh this looks FABULOUS! Do you think it would work with ground beef or turkey? There aren’t any stores in my area that sell ground lamb, or even lamb I could grind myself.
Teanna, I have but a very long time ago, back in the days when I used to party. We’d go line up at 3am.
Megan, I’m sure you could use other meats, it would just be a different flavor, but I don’t think it would be bad.
Little known fact is that the guys on 56th and 6th also own the cart across the street. There’s usually no line and its the same great stuff (Halal Guys). If the main cart is on the south west corner, the alternate truck is on the south east =)
Will they be as tasty without the fat? i mean i understand that fat makes things way tastier in general, but could i get away without it?
Thanks Anonymous — pro tip!
Nate – No; I wouldn’t recommend doing this without the fat. It’s a lot of work and to not get the full flavor or texture would be a bit of a waste. The fat not only adds flavor but keeps the meat from over-cooking and drying out during the process. I suspect (haven’t tried) that without it you’d end up with lots of burn niblets of ground lamb.
You could use different fat though, my choices would be pork fat or chicken fat. You could pick up some fat back (pork) from most butchers (even supermarket butchers) and use that. Or just use chicken skin.
3 words: TOO MUCH SALT!!!!!!!! otherwise I learned a lot – but my meat is now inedible! and I doubled the meat and kept the spice portions the same – what the heck?
Ana,
did you use table salt or kosher salt
I know it isnt specified in the recipe but 3 Tbsp of table salt should be too much for just about anything.
Do you know what kind of hot sauce the street vendors use? The tzatziki I can try making, but I don’t think using siracha with it would be the same. I think it might be took thick.
Ana – Sorry you found it too salty… Jasper is right, this should say “Kosher Salt”, I have edited so it now says that. That may have been the issue. That said, if you’re familiar with this kind of street food, it is insanely salty. It would probably be OK to take the salt down a bit in the recipe, but I would not reduce the other spices.
Tony – Excellent question. Honestly I don’t know for sure. Having tasted many of them, it is definitely not sriracha (although at some carts they have sriracha available), usually there is much less garlic flavor, key to sriracha. Also, typically it is looser sriracha. I would say it’s closer to a Franks’ Red Hot sauce (to use a brand name as a frame of reference), although usually spicier. Off the top of my head, if I were going to re-create that sauce I’d probably use a combination of fresh habaneros and cayenne peppers (with seeds) simmered in white vinegar and water (maybe 1:5 ratio, or so), with salt, ground cayenne pepper, and maybe a bit of granulated garlic and onion powder. Then blend that until smooth and add enough water/vinegar to get the right consistency.
Oh, recently we had a family gathering where we made this recipe, but substituted ground turkey instead of ground lamb. Otherwise the recipe was the same (including using lamb fat). It was fantastic.
Hi, I’m in Australia and I tried this tonight (the herb mix) with no variation other than the salt – I used 1 tbsp of ground rock salt. It was really nice, and think a sprinkle of lemon juice and some fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves upon serving would have been nice, too. Either way, it was fun to make and tasted great!
Hi Nicole, thanks for trying out our concoction! Is street meat common in Australia?
I agree with Ana, TOO much salt, and yes I used kosher, half the amount (3 Tbs) called for. Could you have meant teasp? I think the tzadz and bread will hide some of the saltiness, but wow! Otherwise,
flavor measures up to street fare 🙂
This is amazing! 10 star recipe taste so authentic. Honestly incredible! I made a couple revisions- 3tsp kosher salt instead of 3tbp and instead of bread crumbs I used an egg cuz I don’t do gluten. My god I feel like a superhero. My husband is going to die if I don’t eat all of this before he gets home! Thank you for publishing!
Alison, go superhero! I feel like women are….=)