Gyros with greek salad

This is a recipe that is unbelievably easy and low maintenance to make. With a few choice ingredients the marinade is assembled in minutes and after that its just a question of waiting long enough and frying it up quickly. I have adapted it from this (German) source.

Make it the night before and it will be even more worth the effort!

This marinade will suit beef, pork or chicken. As it is only cooked for a very short time it is worth it to invest in a more tender piece of meat...

For three people:
3 Tsp mild paprika
2 Tsp oregano
2 Tsp thyme
1/2 Tsp ground cumin
2 cloves of garlic, pressed or grated
ca. 2 Tsp mustard
salt to taste
a good squeeze of lemon juice
olive oil
500 gr. chopped beef
2 onions, sliced

1. Mix the ingredients for the marinade. Add olive oil bit by bit until the marinade is loose enough to coat the meat. A couple of tablespoons should do it.
2. Add the beef and onion slices making sure everything is well coated.
3. Cover with cling film and wait. :-)
Generally the longer the better. But I would say that half an hour should be the minimum. If you remember, stir everything a couple of times.
4. Heat a frying pan to high heat and fry the meat up in batches. In my experience the oil in the marinade and a nonstick frying pan will do just fine without any extra oil... but suit yourself.
5. Serve with a simple salad of cucumber, tomatoes, black olives and feta cheese.


I can imagine that this would be a good thing to serve up for a crowd with pita breads and extra salad, so that everyone could make their own flatbreads...

Lamb cutlets

Yesterday was spent recuperating from a great night out two days ago (! that's how good it was) and cooking for various sick family members in the house. This produced a couple of soups and a lot of grated apple. The Orange and White Asparagus Soup will definitely be made again.

But not having foreseen the blight of sickness, I had already done the shopping in anticipation of being able to cook something a little different. I went ahead with this plan for dinner and was not disappointed. The results of this recipe will have me raving like a lunatic for some time yet.

It is, to me, the perfect finger food. The cutlets can be enjoyed without cutlery and I will definitely make this for the next party, that deserves a bit of effort.
These crunchy, juicy morsels of meat had the perfect texture for the creamy yogurt sauce. The cumin and the fresh coriander gave it the perfect hint of Asia.
Can you sense that I LOVED this? And I was not alone.

Please excuse the lack of appropriate photo-documentation. This is one instance in which a thousand raving words will have to do instead of the perfect picture. (Hope to change that soon.)

This recipe is adapted from Bill Grangers Everyday book.

12 french trimmed lamb cutlets
1 egg
1,5 tablespoons milk
flour
80 grams of fresh bread crumbs
one small handful of finely chopped flat leaved parsley
1 generous tablespoon of finely chopped fresh coriander leaves
1 teaspoon lemon zest
half a teaspoon of ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for frying

Fill your flour into a flat, deep plate or bowl. In a second dish beat together the egg and milk. In the third mix together the breadcrumbs, herbs, zest and cumin. Then season to taste.
Take your lamb cutlets and beat them gently with the broad side of a chopping knife or a rolling pin. A classic meat hammer would probably tear them to shreds in seconds...
Dip the pieces of meat first in the flour (shake off excess), then in the egg and lastly into the crumb mixture. The general goal is to get as much breadcrumbs to stick and turn these beauties into crunchy delicacies when fried up.

Heat a frying pan to medium-high heat, add olive oil and fry the cutlets in batches for about two minutes per side. Keep them warm in the oven until you want to serve them.

Herb Yogurt Sauce
125 ml greek yogurt
2 tablespoons flat leaved parsley chopped
2 tablespoons coriander chopped
1 teaspoon lemon zest
salt to taste
a pinch of crumbled dry or finely chopped fresh chili, if desired

Very simply mix all of the above together and serve with your warm lamb cutlets.

*Advice on buying the meat in Switzerland: I found the cutlets sold at the local Coop to be slightly on the thick side. I chose to buy lamb racks instead and cut them up at home.

Improvised asian pork chops

These pork chops were a spur of the moment thing. We used what we had on hand and they turned out very delectable.



The marinade was;
lots of soy sauce
a couple of cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
a dash of ginger powder (because we didn't have any fresh)
a generous table spoon of homemade orange marmalade, very finely chopped (because the sister doesn't like it) *devilish*

In hindsight a little chopped chili would have been nice too.

We prepared the chops with a generous sprinkling of Dayong powder* on both sides and let them sit in the marinade for half an hour.
The chops were cooked about four minutes on both sides and left to rest under aluminum foil whilst the leftover marinade was used to make a sauce. I just let the marinade and a splash of white wine reduce in the pan that was used to cook the chops. Then I stirred in cold butter and adjusted the seasoning.

Served in slices with a few waxy potato and salad. Sorry, no pictures. We were sooo hungry.

*This is my fathers secret ingredient for cooking meats of all kind. It's an Asian (I think Chinese) spice mixture that gives the dish a more rounded flavor with a hint of exotic. But it doesn't really dominate the taste of the dish.