beef gyros

my husband added sliced red chilis to his plate 
of beef gyros (shown above)

Previously I talked about marinated beef tenderloins (Hormel brand) which we had a chance to try recently. Both the roasted teriyaki and peppercorn flavors turned out excellent. They were very tender with good flavor. I was also surprised that the sodium content wasn't as high as most marinated products in the market today. The leftover peppercorn flavored beef fillets were thinly sliced and made into these gyros.

I experimented with adding a cup of my sourdough starter to my usual pita bread recipe using more whole wheat flour this time and they puffed up well (shown above).

WHOLE WHEAT SOURDOUGH PITA BREAD
1 cup sourdough starter
1/2 to 3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
1 teaspoon salt

Pour the sourdough starter, olive oil and water into the bread machine pan followed by the flour, sugar, salt then the yeast. Select the dough setting for a total of 1 hour and 30 minutes kneading and resting time. Adjust the water amount if dough is too dry.Turn out the risen dough onto a floured surface or board. Gently stretch out dough and cut into 6-10 pieces. Roll the pieces into small balls and let rest for 10 minutes. Use a rolling pin to flatten the pieces of dough. Let rest for another 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 375F. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until puffed with the edges lightly browned.

Gyros are incomplete without  tzatziki, a yogurt dip commonly served with Greek food. Serve the beef gyros with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and thinly sliced red onion.

TZATZIKI
1/2 cup Greek yogurt or strained plain yogurt
1 cup finely diced English cucumber
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried mint or 1 tbsp. chopped fresh mint
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic 
freshly ground pepper
1-2 tablespoons sour cream
lemon juice (optional)
dash of paprika (optional)

Sprinkle the salt on the diced cucumber in a colander. The salt will help draw out excess water from the cucumber then further squeeze out the water with a papertowel. Combine with the rest of the ingredients. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.