Greek-style Fatty

Last year, i made a Greek-style fatty based loosely on the gyro, which is predominant under many names in Middle-Eastern style cuisine, of which Greek cuisine is a part.

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped or shredded
• 2 pounds ground lamb (a 50/50 combination of lamb and pork would be great, too)
• 1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon dried marjoram
• 1 tablespoon dried ground rosemary
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1) Process the onion in a food processor for 10 to 15 seconds and turn out into the center of a tea towel. Gather up the ends of the towel and squeeze until almost all of the juice is removed. Discard juice.

2) Return the onion to the food processor and add the lamb, garlic, marjoram, rosemary, salt, and pepper and process until it is a fine paste, approximately 1 minute. Stop the processor as needed to scrape down sides of bowl.

Since I still had a few fresh herbs from my herb garden, I used these as much as possible - also, I may added just a bit of a "secret" ingredient that will, for now, go un-named.

I then spread the mixture out flat on top of 2 overlapping pieces of plastic wrap that were at least 18 inches long. I laid out some fillings - I sprinkled a little of the fabled "secret ingredient" on the meat, then for the flilling: I used 2 bunches of green onions (chopped) and 4 cloves of chopped garlic, both sauted a bit until they were soft and carmelized, and spread them out over two chopped vine tomatoes. If I would have had any, i would have used sun-dried tomatoes in the filling and possibly the meat mixture. I also added a few torn-up mint leaves to the filling and topped with about 4 ounces of crumbled feta cheese. Feel free to add any other apporpriate fillings that would normally be common to Greek food (perhaps kalamata olives and/or spinach leaves?).

I then rolled the mixture in the plastic wrap tightly, making sure to remove any air pockets. One thing that helped was that I left 2 or 3 inches of one end of the meat with no stuffing on it and also about an inch around the edges. I tried to keep it as tight as possible as I went, pressing in the sides a bit. Once the meat was completely rolled in the wrap, i twisted the ends of the plastic wrap until the surface of the wrap was tight and stored it in the refrigerator overnight, to allow the mixture to firm up and the flavors to marry.

The next day, I tossed this on the smoker and smoked low and slow until done. Smoke with what? That was a long-thought question. The obvious choices, hickory, cherry, apple etc. are not native to Greece as far as i know. I ended up using apple and hickory, but I think any smoke will do, as long as you like it. I have heard of people using grape vines and this would be interesting and also keep with the Greek theme, but I have none available here. Also, if you want, try throwing on a few garlic cloves to smoke and some fresh herbs. One thing for sure, it is suggested to keep the smoke light in order to really bring out the flavor. You can do this by using some mild woods or, if you only have "heavy" woods, you can just not apply as much smoke as you normally would.

To help keep it moist, I basted every now and then by brushing on a 50/50 mixture of olive oil and lemon juice with the addition of a few chopped herbs. An internal temperature of around 165 degrees is just fine, but you can go higher if you choose.

When done, I let it rest for a few minutes, then sliced and serve it in pita pockets with chopped cucumber, tomoatoes, sliced onions and of course feta cheese. I also wanted to offer tzatziki sauce (recipe below) as a topping, but never got around to making it. If I was really ambitious, I would have tried to make home-made pitas, too but the fatty reall was plenty of work!

• 16 ounces plain yogurt
• 1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped or shredded
• Pinch kosher salt
• 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
• 5 to 6 mint leaves, finely minced

Place the yogurt in a tea towel, gather up the edges, suspend over a bowl, and drain for 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Place the chopped cucumber in a tea towel and squeeze to remove the liquid; discard liquid. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the drained yogurt, cucumber, salt, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and mint.

Yield: 1&1/2 cups

Wow what a nice shot of it in the pita.....on my long list of to-do's