Global Eats: A Year in Review

Photo credit: “World Map – Abstract Acrylic.” Photo by Nicolas Raymond. Painting by Lara Mukahirn. Some rights reserved. Retrieved here.

About a year ago, I challenged myself to spend 2017 exploring more cultures through food. It's been a fun and scrumptious year! I've enjoyed the challenge of seeking out new recipes, techniques, ingredients, and flavor combinations from all over the world. Also, aiming for one country each month was just about perfect--it was doable and consistent.

And because bloggers are supposed to do end-of-year round-ups, here's a rundown of the foods I've gotten to experience this year, as well as some new ingredients and equipment that have found new homes in my kitchen.

Looking ahead to 2018, I plan to keep experimenting with different international cuisines! Near the top of my list: Bangladesh and Poland.

January: Peru

Menu and write-up are here
Peruvian Beef Kebabs (Anticuchos with Roasted Yellow Pepper Sauce)
Potatoes with Huancaina Sauce (Papa a la Huancaina)
Sarsa Salad
Crema Volteada

February: Tunisia

Menu and write-up are here
Chicken Kebabs with Currant and Olive Relish
Slata Mechouia (Grilled Salad)
Orange Almond Cake

March: Hungary (and kinda Romania)

Hungarian Tomato-Pepper Stew (Lesco) - and we served it over polenta, because apparently polenta is a common breakfast element in Romania.

April: Vietnam

Vietnamese Shrimp Noodle Bowl (Bun Tom Xao) - fresh, crunchy, and bursting with flavor.

May: Finland and Dutch West Indies

Finnish Pulla Bread with Apricots and Pistachios - one of the most beautiful things I've ever made. I was so proud of these glisteningly bronzed braids!
Dutch West Indian Chicken Kebabs (Boka Dushi) with Dutch West Indian Peanut Sauce - with most dishes, I have a pretty good idea of how they're going to taste. This one, however, combined so many ingredients that I wouldn't have thought to combine, that I truly didn't know what to expect from the finished dish. Happily, it turned out to be one of my favorite dishes this year. We served it with a side of sauteed plantains.

June

My job is crazy-busy every June, so I didn't officially try any new countries. But the Tunisian menu got an encore performance, and I vaguely remember trying a new Thai dish.

July: Madagascar and Ethiopia

Malagasy Chicken with Ginger (Akoho Sy Sakamalao) - another favorite this year, largely because it surprised me with how good the finished dish was despite the fairly simple ingredients and preparation technique.
Ethiopian Cucumber-Mango Salad

August

For the life of me, I can't remember what country (if any) I cooked in August. But I did try preserved lemons for the first time, and those are used a lot in north African and Mediterranean dishes.

September: Myanmar

Burmese Ginger Salad (Gin Thoke) - this salad had so much going on. It was strong on the ginger and lemon, crunchy from the cabbage, and filling thanks to the chickpeas and lentils.
Also some Pineappleade which is kinda generically Southeast Asian.
Also an encore of the Malagasy chicken.

October: Somalia

Somali Beef Stew with Spiced Rice (Bariis Maraq) - making this meal included mixing up a classic Somali spice blend, called xawaash, which was a key player in both the stew and the spiced rice. If you make this, do yourself a favor and don't skip the bananas. They seemed to me like an odd topping, but my favorite bites were ones that included banana. As a fun side note, this dish was part of a global food spread that my house church did in celebration of World Food Day.

November: Germany

Obatzter (Camembert cheese spread)
Bavarian Soft Pretzels

December: Spain

Rustic Spanish Bread (Pan Rustico) - simple and good. In light of the holidays, birthday, and being knocked out with a cold for a few days, something simple was all I could manage this month.

New Ingredients and Equipment

• Aji amarillo - yellow pepper paste from Peru
• Almond meal - sure, it's widely used here in the States, but Tunisia inspired me to use it for the first time
• Hungarian wax peppers - mild spice level, and they were readily available at Walmart
• Kitchen scale - this inexpensive but reliable scale is suuuuuper helpful with recipes with measurements written in grams and ounces rather than cups and teaspoons ... which happens often when using recipes that didn't originate in the U.S.
• Orange blossom water - basically the elixer of the gods
• Pistachios - though I never cared for them before, I used (and enjoyed!) them quite a bit this year
• Pomegranate molasses - made my own; used in this Pomegranate Molasses Chicken
• Preserved lemons - when my current jar runs out, I want to try making my own
• Spice grinder - this year my eyes (and taste buds) were opened to the wonderful world of grinding one's own spices right before tossing them into a dish. Grinding whole cloves, peppercorns, and cumin seeds will give you much more punch than measuring out pre-ground spices. I use my Magic Bullet which I've had for awhile, and I've heard that a coffee grinder or a mortar and pestle work quite well.
• Sumac - ground spice used a lot in Middle Eastern foods; bought at Cordell's; I'd eaten it before but hadn't cooked with it
• Xawaash - Somalian spice blend featuring cinnamon, coriander, cumin, black pepper, cardamom, cloves, and turmeric; recipe is included in the Somali stew recipe above.

Finnish Pulla Bread with Apricots and Pistachios

Have you had the pleasure of watching The Great British Baking Show (a.k.a., Bake-Off)? If you like baked goods and you like seeing a more positive side of humanity, I absolutely recommend it. Unlike U.S. American food competition shows, the contestants and judges are actually genuinely nice to each other, and they genuinely seem to care more about having fun with their creative outlet than with winning.

Well, several months ago I watched all the seasons of Bake-Off that Netflix would allow, and though I was thoroughly wowed by every episode, I found myself most inspired by the enriched breads, as these bakers kept creating succulent doughs studded with fruit and spices and shaped into intricate braids and knots that shimmered with sticky sweet glazes. This past weekend I finally went for it!

Based on the numerous pulla recipes I read during the last 48 hours, pulla is a traditional Finnish bread. It's a yeasty cousin to brioche and challah; flavored with cardamom; generally shaped into a braid, a wreath, or buns; and traditionally served with coffee. Some recipes included fruit or nuts, while others were more basic. So I wound up making a more plain, traditional loaf and a more jazzed up loaf.

Finnish Pulla Bread with Apricots and Pistachios
Yield: 2 loaves/braids*
Source: I referenced many recipes but mostly followed the ingredients from Around the World in 80 Bakes and the process from All Recipes

Ingredients
6 Tbsp. butter, melted, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups milk (at least 2%; I used part 2%, part half-and-half)
4-1/2 tsp. active dry yeast (or 2 packets, 7 g each)
2 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. sugar (1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp.)
3/4 to 1 tsp. ground cardamom**
700 g all-purpose flour (for me this ended up being about 4-2/3 cups)

Zest of 2 oranges
16 dried apricots, finely diced
40 g pistachios, finely chopped

1 egg

Directions
Melt the butter and allow it to cool to room temperature. Warm the milk to 110 degrees.*** Go ahead and measure out your flour into a smallish bowl. You'll add it in increments, so it's easy to measure once and then eyeball it throughout the different steps in the recipe.

To a large bowl add the milk, yeast, salt, sugar, cardamom, and about 1 cup of flour--enough to make a runny batter. Beat the batter until it's really nice and smooth. (For me, this was a couple of minutes on medium speed with my little handheld five-speed mixer.)

Add some more flour (1-2 cups) and continue beating until it's again smooth and elastic. If you're using a hand mixer like mine, aim for more like 1 to 1-1/2 cups flour. I added close to 2 cups, and it made the dough too thick--it just kept climbing up the beaters!--so I had to switch to beating by hand.

Now add the melted butter. Beat the dough some more, until the butter is fully incorporated and the dough looks smooth and glossy. Add the rest of the flour and keep on mixing until it's fully incorporated. If you have a good quality stand mixer, rejoice! If you don't, you'll get a good arm workout!

Now, lightly flour a clean countertop, and turn the dough out onto it. Invert your mixing bowl over the dough, and let the dough (and your arms) rest for 15 minutes. When those 15 minutes are up, knead the dough for a good 10-15 minutes, until it's nice and smooth.****

Remember your mixing bowl? Spritz it with a bit of cooking spray, put your ball of dough inside, turn the dough so all of it gets lightly coated with oil, and cover the bowl with a damp, clean kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in a warm, undrafty place until it's doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Punch down the dough. If jazzing up your bread, add your orange zest, apricots, and pistachios now. Knead them into the dough. Let it rest for another 5-10 minutes (on the counter is fine, covered with that damp kitchen towel you used earlier).

Divide your dough into 6 portions, as equal as you can get them. Roll each portion into a long rope, about an inch in diameter.

Gather up 3 ropes, and pinch them together on one end. Gently braid the 3 ropes together, and when you get to the end, pinch those ends together as well. Tuck both ends (top and bottom) under the braid, so you have a nice, tidy-looking loaf braid. Repeat this process with the other 3 ropes to make your second loaf braid.

Place braids on a greased baking sheet. Spray the tops with oil, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400. Beat an egg really well, until it's super smooth. Remove the plastic wrap from the loaf braids and very gently brush some beaten egg over the loaves. Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan half-way through the baking time, until the loaves are browned, glistening, and look like they should be in a bakery display case!

Notes
*Initially I planned to make just one braid, but one recipe I read made an excellent point: if you're going to go to the trouble of making a homemade yeast bread--including all the kneading and rise time, you might as well make two or more loaves and have plenty to share. Your friends and coworkers will thank you.

**I saw widely varying cardamom measurements and settled on 3/4 tsp. When I nibbled some dough (I'm weird like that) the cardamom flavor was pretty subtle. So I added another 1/8 tsp. or so to the loaf I made with apricots, and kneaded it in along with the apricots, pistachios, and orange zest. That was still a nice amount of cardamom without feeling overwhelming.

***Some recipes I read said to scald the milk by bringing it to a near boil on the stove and then letting it cool to 110 degrees. I simply warmed mine in the microwave until it felt warm but not uncomfortably hot.

****I was expecting mine to reach a super smooth, satiny texture like I get with cinnamon roll dough ... but my pulla dough never got to that stage, even after 15 minutes. It was smooth, but the dough felt denser and heavier than I'm used to. I don't know if it's supposed to be that way, or if it got thrown off by some combination of my technique, the temperature and humidity of my kitchen, the flour measurement in the recipe I followed, or the general mood of the bread gods that day.

Hungarian Tomato-Pepper Stew (Lesco)

Have you ever had stew for breakfast? As of a few weeks ago, I have!

When my brother came to visit last month, I basically forced him to join in my international cuisine challenge. We settled on breakfast and decided to go with a European country we're less familiar with. 20 minutes of Googling recipes later, and we settled on Hungarian breakfast stew, served over creamy polenta (which is, apparently, a common breakfast element in Romania), with a fried duck egg on top (because I'd just bought duck eggs from some friends, and we were excited to try them).

I'm seriously slacking in the photography department lately, mostly because I've been sharing meals with friends instead of eating alone. Which is an excellent thing for me, but it means I don't have a lovely photo to share with you. Sorrynotsorry.

Hungarian Tomato-Pepper Stew (Lesco)
From The Spruce
Yield: 4 servings (see notes)

Ingredients
1-2 slices bacon
1 Tbsp. oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 pound of peppers, sliced into 1/4" strips - use Hungarian wax peppers if you can find them, or banana, Italian, or green bell peppers, or some combination thereof
4 medium or 3 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1-1/2 tsp. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sweet Hungarian paprika

Directions
In a large skillet, cook bacon according to package directions. Remove bacon to a plate to cool, but leave all that tasty grease in the skillet.

Add in the oil and onion, and cook for about 5 minutes on low heat. Add pepper(s) and continue cooking for 15 more minutes. Add tomatoes, sugar, salt, and paprika to the skillet, and let it cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it looks and feels like a chunky tomato sauce.

Meanwhile, crumble the bacon after it has cooled; stir it into the dish when it's close to being done.

Notes

• This made 4 moderate to generous servings if served with polenta and a fried egg. If you're not making accompaniments, then this recipe may only give you 2-3 servings.
• I went to the store fully expecting to be stuck with green bell peppers, but they actually had Hungarian wax peppers! The sign said they're medium-hot, so I decided to get one green bell pepper to bring down the heat level, and used wax peppers to make up the rest of the pound. The dish didn't taste super spicy, but I was coughing something awful while Josh was cutting the wax peppers.

Panna Cotta (and Pasta Night!)

Photo credit: Chai Green

A couple weeks ago, I had some friends over for a hands-on dinner party, and we tackled two of my 2015 food goals in one night: pasta and panna cotta. I made the pasta dough and panna cotta ahead of time, and once my friends arrived, I put them to work helping roll pasta.

For the pasta dough, I used the recipe from Cooking at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. Basically all you need is flour, a bit of salt, egg, and a bit of oil. For rolling and handling technique, I found this article from Serious Eats to be very helpful. It's also a good read if you like to get real nerdy about your food. We used the old-school hand crank pasta rollers and cutters, for which you really do need two people--one to turn the crank and hold the machine in place, and one to feed the dough through the rollers and catch it as it comes out. I don't understand how people manage a hand crank roller by themselves! Making fresh pasta was a lot of work, but it was fun work with friends who were willing to pitch in and work for their dinner. And it tasted so good!

It was Lynn Rosetto Kasper of The Splendid Table podcast who inspired me to make panna cotta, so I originally planned to use her recipe. However, she uses sour cream in hers, and I couldn't find lactose-free sour cream for my lactose-intolerant guest, so I used The Kitchn's recipe instead. It tasted delicious, looked and felt fancy, and was actually really easy to make. And you can easily vary it up with different toppings or even different kinds of milk or flavorings. I will definitely make panna cotta again. See tips and topping ideas in the notes below the recipe.

Also, for an appetizer that night, I made simple peach-basil crostini. Simply slice a baguette, spray or brush lightly with olive oil, and spread out on a baking sheet. Then broil for just a few minutes until toasted (watch closely!). Then chop up some fresh peaches, and toss it with some thinly sliced fresh basil. Scoop the peach-basil mixture onto the crostini, and you've got a tasty, summery bite. A bit of ricotta or creamy goat cheese probably would have been a nice addition. Bonus: the peach-basil mixture tasted sublime on the panna cotta.

Panna Cotta

From The Kitchn

Yield: 6 servings (6 oz. each)

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups whole milk

1 Tbsp. powdered gelatin

1/3 cup sugar

1-1/2 cups heavy cream

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Fresh raspberries, chopped fresh peaches, or other toppings of choice (see notes)

Directions

Pour the milk into a saucepan (off the stove) and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes. The surface will get wrinkly and the gelatin will be slightly dissolved.

Set the saucepan over low heat and warm the milk gently, whisking frequently. The milk should never boil, simmer, or even start steaming. If it starts to steam, remove it from the heat and let it cool slightly. The milk should get warm, but not so hot that you can't hold your finger in there for a few seconds. After about 2 minutes of warming, rub a bit of the milk between your fingers to make sure it's smooth and doesn't feel gritty at all.

Add the sugar to the milk, whisk it, and continue warming until the sugar is dissolved. Again, make sure the milk doesn't get too hot. This whole process of dissolving the gelatin and the sugar shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. 

Remove the saucepan from the heat. Whisk in the cream, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Let the mixture sit out so it cools to room temperature. Whisk it again, then pour into wine glasses, ramekins, or other container of choice. Chill for 1-2 hours or more. The longer it chills, the firmer it will be. Add toppings of choice and serve.

Notes

• Topping ideas: Fresh raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries (puree some for a sauce, if desired). Chopped fresh peaches, tossed with fresh basil, if desired. Drizzle of thick, good-quality balsamic vinegar. Drizzle of honey. 
• The gelatin we're using here is plain, unflavored, unsweetened gelatin. In other words, not Jello. I found it in the Jello and pudding section of the grocery store, and the brand I got looks like this. It had 4 little envelopes of gelatin powder, and it took almost two envelopes to measure 1 Tbsp. 
• When I got ready to pour the milk mixture into the wine glasses, I found it helpful to line a cookie sheet with non-slip shelf liner, then put the wine glasses on that. It made it easier to move them into the fridge all at once with no slip 'n' slide action.
• The Kitchn has two panna cotta articles that I found helpful: How to Make Panna Cotta and Why Panna Cotta Is the Perfect Dessert. In both articles, she mentions that sometimes the milk and cream can separate into layers of lighter and heavier fat levels while the panna cotta chills. In the first article she recommends using half and half (instead of milk plus cream) to combat this, and in the second article she recommends allowing the mixture to come to room temp and whisking again before pouring into ramekins. I went with the latter solution, as you see in the recipe above.
• If you want to unmold your panna cotta to serve it, see the instructions in the How to Make Panna Cotta article linked above.

Basic, Traditional, Wonderful Lasagna

I use the terms basic and traditional because this lasagna features the classic elements of tomato-based meat sauce, with pasta (as opposed to sliced veggies) and lots of cheese. However, please don't take basic to mean this is just a boring run-of-the-mill lasagna recipe. Because this lasagna was terrific, got rave reviews from my dinner guests, and is--hands down--my new go-to lasagna recipe.

photo credit: Heather, as posted on
allrecipes.com

I hadn't made a traditional lasagna since I was a kid and my mom requested it for her birthday dinner. (At which time I had to call her at work many times during the making of her lasagna in order to pester her with questions. Sorry, Mom!) Over the years, I've remarked to numerous people that I actually like Stouffer's better than my own homemade lasagna. Well, Stouffer's. You'd best move over, 'cause there's a new lasagna recipe in town! This lasagna was just really good all around. It had a lot of flavor, with a good balance and depth of flavors, and was plenty saucy and plenty cheesy without being over the top.

The recipe (which I've only slightly adapted) has a five-star rating with over 8,000 reviews on All Recipes. Just sayin'.

Also worth mentioning, I can now check goal #1 off my list of 2014 food goals!

Finally, a note before diving into the recipe: Please plan ahead for making this, as it's not the kind of thing you can just throw together at the last minute. For best flavor, the sauce needs to simmer for at least an hour or so (the longer, the better!). I recommend making the sauce and assembling the lasagna the night before, then refrigerating overnight and throughout the next day to let the flavors deepen even more. Pull it out of the fridge 30-60 minutes before baking to let it get closer to room temperature.


Wonderful Classic Lasagna
Adapted slightly from All Recipes
Yield: one 9x13 pan, or 12 servings

Ingredients
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 lb. ground sausage (see notes)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
3 cloves garlic
1 (28-oz.) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6.5-oz.) cans tomato sauce
2 (6-oz.) cans tomato paste
1/2 cup water
2 tsp. sugar (more or less to taste)
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1-1/2 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
1-1/2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil (or 1-1/2 tsp. dried)
Kosher salt, to taste

16 oz. part-skim ricotta cheese
4-6 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
1 egg
1/2 tsp. kosher salt

3/4 lb. fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
3/4 to 1 cup shredded 3-cheese Italian blend (Asiago, Romano, and Parmesan)
12 lasagna noodles
Additional fresh basil, chopped or torn, for garnish (optional)

Directions
In a medium to large pot, brown the beef and sausage over medium heat. If there's a fair amount of fat, soak it up with paper towels and discard. Add the onion and cook until somewhat tender. Add the garlic and cook for a couple minutes more, stirring frequently.

Stir in the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, sugar, pepper, and Italian seasoning. If using dried basil, stir that in now, too. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for an hour or two, stirring occasionally. Taste it after about 30 minutes and adjust salt, sugar, and pepper if needed (mine didn't need any extra salt since my sausage was pretty salty). Right before assembling the lasagna, stir the fresh basil into the sauce.

To make the ricotta filling, stir together the ricotta, fresh parsley, egg, and 1/2 tsp. salt.

To prepare the noodles, fill a large bowl or pan with hot tap water. Add the lasagna noodles to the water, and let sit for 15-30 minutes. Shoot for the lower end of that spectrum if allowing your lasagna to sit overnight before baking, and the higher end of the spectrum if planning to bake the lasagna right away. Drain the noodles and set aside until ready to assemble the lasagna.

Spray a 9x13-inch glass baking pan with cooking spray, get your mozzarella and 3-cheese Italian blend ready, then assemble the lasagna! You can do your layers any number of ways; here's how I did mine:

• layer 1: meat sauce + noodles + mozzarella slices + Italian cheese blend
• layer 2: meat sauce + noodles + ricotta mixture + Italian cheese blend
• layer 3: meat sauce + noodles + meat sauce 
• top layer: mozzarella slices + Italian cheese blend

For each round of meat sauce, use about 1-1/2 cups, and for each round of noodles, use 4 (or 3.75 if your pan is shaped like mine). If you have extra sauce toward the end, add extra with layer 3, or reserve and freeze for the next time you need a quick spaghetti meal.

Spray a sheet of foil with cooking spray (to prevent cheeses and sauce from sticking to it), then use it to cover the lasagna and refrigerate until ready to bake. Remove from fridge 30 minutes to an hour before baking. Preheat oven to 375. Bake, still covered with the foil, for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 25 more minutes, until cheese is melty and lasagna is bubbly and toasted. Allow to cool/rest for 15 minutes before serving. If desired, sprinkle with more chopped or torn fresh basil immediately before serving (the basil will darken as it sits).

Notes

• For the sausage, use whatever flavor profile strikes your fancy. Obviously an Italian sausage makes sense, a spicier sausage would add some heat, etc. All Recipes calls for sweet Italian sausage, and I actually used wild boar sausage that my neighbors shared with me!
• Fresh mozzarella really is lovely. For a less expensive alternative, you could use basic shredded mozzarella, but be sure to use more of it. Fresh mozzarella has a much higher water content, which makes it more gooey and wonderful. 
• If you don't have time to let the sauce simmer for so long, the world will not end. But the flavors will be better if you let it simmer at least an hour while you go do other things in other parts of your house.
• Reviewers on All Recipes said this recipe freezes really well. After assembling the lasagna, cover well, then freeze. Thaw in your fridge (probably for at least 8 hours or overnight), then proceed with baking. 

Mediterranean Orzo Salad

Before summer completely slips away, here's a recipe for a fresh, summery, easily adaptable pasta salad. Switch out any of the vegetables based on your preferences or whatever you may have bursting from your garden. Leave the chickpeas out for a less filling side dish, or keep them in for a more filling main dish.

Mediterranean Orzo Salad
Inspired by Real Simple
Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat orzo
1-2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/2 English cucumber, peeled if waxy, seeded if desired, and chopped
2 oz. (1/2 cup) Feta, crumbled
1-2 green onions, sliced
1 small can ripe black olives, sliced
2-3 handfuls cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 to 1 full can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/8 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1-2 Tbsp. fresh dill, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
Cook orzo according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain; rinse under cold water to cool, and shake well to remove excess water.

In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. Add all the rest of the ingredients, including orzo, and toss to combine. Taste and add more salt and pepper if desired, or more of anything else. If it seems dry, add a bit more oil or lemon juice. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Tzatziki and chicken and gyros - oh my!

While grocery shopping several days ago, I spotted some containers of tzatziki and immediately became fixated on finding ways to eat it so I could justify buying a container. Of course, you can simply dip things like cucumbers, pita bread, carrots, etc., in it, but I wanted something a little more exciting. So after some “ways to eat tzatziki” Google searches, I found this recipe for chicken gyros and tzatziki. Bingo!

As is my style, I made some modifications, though the main thing I changed is that I used store-bought tzatziki rather than homemade. When you live by yourself and cook for one, there are some things that are just more cost-effective to buy prepared. I also slightly decreased the amount of chicken.

Because I am actively trying to lose weight, I wanted to keep this meal very low-calorie. If calories weren’t such a big deal, I probably would have gone with regular whole pitas and put in a little bit more filling, possibly assembling the gyros taco style rather than pocket style.

Chicken Gyros

Ingredients:
4 cloves garlic, smashed
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp. red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. plain yogurt
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large (12 oz.) boneless skinless chicken breast (with rib meat)
4 whole wheat pita salad pockets (I found them in the pita section of HEB)
Fresh cucumbers, peeled and finely chopped
Fresh tomatoes, finely chopped
Fresh red onion, very thinly sliced
1/4 cup prepared tzatziki sauce

Directions:
Combine first 7 ingredients in a glass bowl. Cut the chicken breast into 4 evenly-sized strips and add to the marinade, making sure the chicken is nicely coated in marinade goodness. Cover and refrigerate for about an hour.

Cook the chicken whatever way floats your boat. I cooked mine in the George Foreman for about 2-1/2 minutes, and they came out deliciously juicy. Let the cooked chicken rest for about 5 minutes, then slice fairly thinly.

Wrap the pitas in a slightly damp paper towel and microwave for about 15 seconds. Scoop 1/4 of the chicken into each pita salad pocket. Add cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onion (I used about 1/8 of a cucumber for one gyro, and about 1/8 of a Roma tomato). Finish off each gyro with 1 Tbsp. of tzatziki, and enjoy! You may need to mix things around in the pocket with a fork to get the tzatziki integrated with the rest of the ingredients.

Yield: 4 gyros

Calories: Approximately 256 per gyro

Verdict: Absolutely delicious! I am excited about eating the other 3 servings that are waiting in my fridge, and I will definitely make this recipe again.

Changes to make next time: As far as taste goes, I wouldn’t change a thing. But for the sake of buying one fewer ingredient, I may use tzatziki, rather than plain yogurt, in the marinade.

These veggies look slightly like wax, but I assure you they are real!