One of the less common types of sandwich/wrap in the USA is the gyro. Typically the only place you will find great ones served is in a Greek deli or restaurant, with a few exceptions in restaurants operated by better, food diverse restaurateurs. The main reason people don't make gyros at home is the lack of necessary ingredients.

First, the meat most often used in the USA is a processed seasoned minced lamb and beef mixture, typically cut from a preformed conical roast that, while not the same, reminds me of the processed beef approach used at Arby's® restaurants. In this case the meat mixture is minced, seasoned and bound using a product like transglutaminase to form what looks like a conventional roast or oversized meatloaf, from which thin slices can be cut after cooking, on what looks like a vertical rotisserie, and then grilled and seasoned as a final step for making a gyro. Thus, it is easy to understand why we don't normally make gyros at home ... the meat is not typically made available to the general public. Besides that, how many home chefs get into using commercial enzyme products like transglutaminase?

For the record, I just read a treatise on how to use the different types of transglutaminase with different foods, even ceviche! And I just ordered a pound of it via Amazon®. That should be enough to process over 100 pounds of meat. So I will be having lots of fun experimenting in my kitchen with all kinds of different applications. You can expect sometime in the not too distant future to see an explanation of how to use it in the Food Nirvana Technology section. Now back to the gyro discussion.

Second, the rolled pita bread, or wrap, that holds the meat is not something we typically have at home unless we make it or, for ethnic reasons, keep a supply for our common foods. One does not normally use a pita pocket type of bread ... instead, a gyro is a wrap of pita bread.

Finally, gyros are served with a special sauce named tzatziki, which is a cucumber and yogurt and dill weed sauce that is very complementary used with the nicely seasoned, grilled meat.

Given the gyro description you might wonder why I would have a recipe in Food Nirvana. The answer is that I found a very easy way to make a delicious gyro-like wrap by pure serendipity. I was so impressed with the taste and composition from my experiment that I simply had to share the recipe with my readers.

Why? The simple fact is that making a gyro-like wrap at home is really easy, and the results delicious. You will see that I diverged from the typical method of making a gyro in terms of some ingredients, yet I maintained what I call 90 percent of the authenticity for the conventional gyro.

If you look carefully at the recipe picture you will note that the only ingredient not shown is the peanut oil. Also, you may note that the beef is something I prepare in quantity, then vacuum seal in individual portions and keep in the deep freeze until I need it.

I hope you make this delicious treat, for once you do, I know you will make it fairly often for yourself, your friends and loved ones. It is delightful and bound to be a pleasant surprise for your guests. I like to enjoy it along with a clean tasting white wine like Pinot Grigio. Actually, I found a local winery, La Belle®, that makes a Seyval Blanc wine that is perfect!

Okay, here is my not too secret recipe in abbreviated form. Use a warmed flour tortilla as the wrap. Use the Mediterranean Cucumber Salad from the recipe in Food Nirvana as the tzatziki sauce. Use shaved lean beef, grilled in a hot cast iron skillet in a small amount of peanut oil and then well seasoned with salt and pepper, as the meat. That is literally all there is to it. The only part that requires early preparation is the making of the salad.

Let's proceed ...

Ingredients: (for each gyro)

1/3 lb. (or more for meat lovers) of shaved lean beef per gyro

1, 10" diameter flour tortilla

1/3 cup (or more) of Mediterranean Cucumber Salad

2 to 3 tbsp. of peanut oil for grilling

Sea salt and ground pepper for seasoning the meat

Directions:

Make the Mediterranean Cucumber Salad per the Food Nirvana recipe. Keep it chilled in the refrigerator.

Either buy lean shaved beef, or better, do what I do and process a lean raw beef roast with a meat slicer to get pieces roughly 1/8" thick, then cut them into strips an inch and a half to two inches wide and about five to six inches long, cutting away and discarding any fatty areas.

Note that when you cut slices of beef from a raw roast remember to cut across the grain of the meat, not along the length. Otherwise your meat strips will be very tough when grilled.

Heat the peanut oil in a 12" diameter cast iron skillet until it is very hot and shimmering. Spread the oil out with a spatula to cover the interior bottom of the skillet. Then lay out six to eight strips of beef flat in the oil, not overlapping each other.

Grill for two minutes, then turn over the beef pieces with tongs and grill for another two minutes. Repeat the turning and grilling steps until the meat shows light to moderate browning on the surface.

Season the meat well with salt and pepper.

Turn off the heat under the skillet.

Put the flour tortilla on a 10" diameter paper or china plate and heat it in the microwave oven on high for 15 seconds.

Put the strips of grilled meat across the center of the tortilla in a roughly straight line, with overlapping, and then spread the cucumber salad evenly over the meat.

Fold in each side of the tortilla to enclose the meat and salad, rolling it up so it is easy to hold while eating.

Eat ... And swoon with delight! It is not possible for me to describe the exceptional combination of tastes and textures that happen when making this great gyro.

Enjoy!