Oven roasted Greek pork gyros served with tzatziki and pita bread. You’d think it was another street dish impossible to replicate at home but no – perfectly doable in the oven, just watch it because it’s a blink of an eye between crisp and burnt.
How to pronounce 'gyros'?
Gyros is pronounced YEE-ROWS, except when you’re ordering, then it’s YEE-ROW. It’s the declension, stupid. Next time you’re in a tavern, don’t say ‘I’d like a YEE-ROWS’ – say: ‘I’d like YEE-ROW’.
Of course it will make matters much easier if you can just say the lot in Greek. But whatever the lingua, you’ll get a bowl of deliciously crispened up pork or chicken fragrant with tomato marinade; and they will think the better of you as you’ve made an effort to find out a bit about the Greek grammar.
Pork gyros better than chicken gyros
Gyros is my favourite Greek food. Stuff your spinakopitas, take away the souvlaki, dolmades – begone. I’ll have gyros always and always, pork rather than chicken as it will get scorched nicely without being burnt to oblivion; pork being the sturdier meat.
Only wimps and non-Greeks go for the chicken gyros. I’ll take pork every time – scorch it, almost burn it and then double-blast the already meltingly tender morsels of pig – and the fat and the rind will be the best bits.
Gyros - impossible to make at home?
You’d think it was another, after kebab, street dish impossible to make at home unless you have an industrial-size barbecue and a tall strong handsome Greek to turn the spit. I wish; but it's actually perfectly doable in the oven.
The trick is to double cook your gyros
The extra trick is to roast it in the oven a bit less and then blast portions in the frying pan or under red hot grill; double cooked pork is the thing, mark my words. The best thing in the whole world to stuff into pita bread - homemade pita won’t go amiss - and tzatziki is of course obligatory with it.
How to marinate pork for gyros?
I have taken the gyros marinade recipe from NY Times Cooking. but it's simple: a mix of smoked paprika, grated onion and lots of garlic.And I strongly believe that the best cut of pork for a Greek gyros is the shoulder or neck.