Sandwich recipe

[Penfold]

I could add a lot to this thread, but I don't actually measure so my recipes might be of limited use to those who haven't developed a knack for cooking. Is this thread for sandwiches only, or cooking in general?

[big giant circles]

i don't think it matters. anything delicious should be revealed!

[Dyne]

Man you're making my stomach growl. I've actually had a philly Cheese Steak when I was in Philly visiting family from NJ and PA. SOOOOOOO much better than in other states.

There is only ONE Philly Cheese Steak, and it's made only in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, Pa, BABY!

(If you haven't tried one, do it.)

[Penfold]

'k, so I'll start with one I've recently learned from my brother...like I said before, I don't really measure so for these purposes I've just approximated.

Gyro sandwich

Gyro meat (enough for about 5 gyros):

- 1 lb equal portions of ground beef and ground lamb (EDIT: that's 1 lb altogether)

- 1/2 regular-sized onion

- marjoram

- rosemary

- black pepper

- salt (preferably rock salt / sea salt/ kosher salt)

Tzadziki:

- 2 cups greek (strained) yogurt

- 1 regular-sized cucumber

- 4-6 cloves of garlic

- olive oil

- apple cider vinegar (you could use balsamic or red wine vinegar as well)

- several fresh mint leaves

For the sandwich:

- Pita

- lettuce

- tomato

- onion

(Make sure you have plenty of paper towels before starting this, as you'll be doing a lot of straining with them, as well as a food processor or good mincing skill and a potato masher, an oven, a loaf pan, a frying pan, a cheese shredder (you could probably use a food processor instead though), and preferably a mortar and pestle)

Start out by preheating your oven to 325. Next, put the lamb and beef in a bowl/container, but don't worry about mixing them for a little bit since you'll be adding to it. Next mince up/food process that half onion, the finer the better. After all minced, take several paper towels, put the minced onion onto them, take to your sink, and strain out the liquids. After you have it nicely ringed out, add the onions to this. Next, take some dashes of marjoram and about the same amount of rosemary (maybe a couple regular spoonfuls each? Just experiment) - if you have a mortar and pestle grind them up, but if not just use them as is - and add to the meat. Add a bit of salt and pepper (freshly ground pepper always, if possible), and start out by mixing this all together by hand. At this point we could just cook it and you'd be left with really good hamburger, but since we want gyro meat you'll need to work it with a potato masher for a while to get the proper texture (I hear you can put it in a food processor to get this effect too, but I don't own one big enough to hold a lb of meat so I dunno from experience). Stick the meat into the loaf pan and cook for about 70 minutes.

As it cooks, you'll have some time to prepare the tdatziki. Make sure you're starting out with greek yogurt to begin with, otherwise you have to strain it yourself, and that'll add more time to your preparation. Spoon the yogurt out into a bowl. Next peel and seed the cucumber, shred, strain (just like you did for the onion), and add to the yogurt. Same process for the garlic cloves and the mint - mince, strain, and add to the yogurt. Add a little splash of olive oil, the same amount of apple cider vinegar, and a bit of salt and mix together. All done.

When the meat is done cooking, let it set to cool. In fact, it isn't a terrible idea to put it in the fridge from an hour...just be sure either way to extract it from the pool of grease it's swimming in before that pool turns into a solid . If you don't let it cool fully, the meat will crumble when you go to cut it. Anyway, when you cut it, slice into somewhat thin strips, and pan fry the slices prior to eating them in order to heat them back up. Warm up your pita, and put your sandwich together with the gyro meat, lettuce, tomato, onion, and top it off with a good spoonful of tdadziki.