All food, all the time.

I was fortunate to meet Chef Psilakis last year at the Buick Food + Wine event in Stamford and I was happy to also receive, gratis, his latest cookbook, How to Roast a Lamb.

The cookbook is good, albeit, slightly daunting so when I wanted to make gyros – I was surprised how quickly [and easily] they came together [although I barely followed the recipe]!

The key is very finely ground meat. Finely ground, to the point of a paste is what you’ll need. I used turkey ground meat, which is basically paste meat. The meat itself wasn’t flavorful so next time, lamb and pork [as the recipe calls for!].

Recipe transformed [a nice way of saying I did whatever I wanted!] from Psilakis:

*ask butcher to run ground meat through grinder once more for that super fine grind

• 1 thick slice of Spanish or sweet onion [I used sweet]
• extra virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and pepper
• 1 pound marbled, finely ground lamb – preferably from the shoulder [I used turkey meat hahahahha]
• 8 ounces finely ground pork
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon garlic puree [there’s a recipe for this but I used the roasted garlic found in the Whole Foods antipasti bar and just mushed it up…do it!]
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1 teaspoon espelette pepper or best quality chile powder [I used Indian EXTRA HOT chile powder]
• 2 tablespoon fresh herbs such as dill, parsley, or chives [I used cilantro because I felt like it]
• 1 whole scallion, minced [I forgot to add this in, so I just topped it with it]
• 2 large eggs, beaten [I used one]

Brush the onion slices with a little olive oil and season with kosher salt and pepper. On a hot griddle pan or in a cast iron skillet, grill the onion until tender. Separate into rings and chop very finely.

Lightly brush a 7.5 x 11-inch baking dish with olive oil and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F [I just used a small rectangular Pyrex].

In a large mixing bowl, combine the grilled onion, lamb, pork mustard, garlic puree, coriander, espelette, fresh herbs, scallion and eggs [I just mixed this in the Pyrex dish because I didn’t feel like wasting another dish!]. season liberally ith kosher salt and pepper and thoroughly combine the mixture with clean hands [opposed to dirty hands]. Transfer to the baking dish and spread out evenly to the edges, smoothing the top flat. Place the dish inside a large roasting pan and add boiling water to about halfway up the sides of the baking dish [I just poured water in the roaster and put it over heat on the burner to make it boil – just make sure you roaster can be directly on the burner!!!].

Bake for 45 minutes or until the gyro shrinks away from the sides and is quite hot in the middle when pierced with a metal skewer [around 150 degrees F]. Remove the pan from the water bath and cool to room temperature [I didn’t do this; we were hungry so we ate it right away].

Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or ideally, 24 hours to develop the flavors [again, I ate it right away]. 

Place a large, platter upside down over the baking dish. Turn both over and carefully remove gyro [nope, I just cut it out of the Pyrex!].

I then got some naan + tahini sauce + greek yogurt + feta [made a sauce and smeared it onto the naan]. I sliced some iceberg lettuce and layered that on the naan/sauce, topped it with the gyro meat, sprinkled some scallions on top and VOILA!

I only have one photo because we ate the food in mere seconds! And it’s blurry because I was so excited to eat :-)

[stolen photo!]

first off, i’m bummed because because i flaked and forgot my camera…typical.

secondly, i took some crummy phone photos that are too terrible to show…my phone takes wonky photos.

so it’ll be a verbal review!

bistro is located in the heart of east rochester and i was super happy to see the place fairly busy for a thursday evening [it’s nice to see people still spending money].

the executive chef, william burkle, is a childhood friend of mine…going back to the good old middle school days!

i started with a ruta malbec [always start with wine!].

at the table: french onion soup, house salad, salmon, sea bass, and a chicken dish.

plus, a perfectly cooked compliments of the chef, ginger calamari.

french onion soup: awesome. rich. if you close your eyes and think of the perfect french onion soup and then take a slurp [yes, slurp] of the soup, it was excellent.

salad is salad [except if it’s watery or weird] but my guest [my mom] ate it all, so that’s a good indicator that it was good? yes? yes.

a surprise interlude with the calamari and my other guest [my gram] was ‘wow’d’.

i’m unsure if she’s ever had calamari or even knew what it was…even after i explained it but she was loving it. calamari can be bad - they can be really bad - so i’m happy to enjoy ones that are 1. correctly prepared and 2. not served with marinara! wasabi cream was perfect.

i ordered the sea bass [it was chilean and the trawling to catch these is a bit weary and generally, chilean sea bass should be avoided…] and it was terrific.

a solid portion with a sort of lo-mein + edamame salad and wasabi on top [i heart wasabi].

the salmon was also on the table and was again, terrifically cooked - with a dollop of dill sour cream on top and butter-tastic mashed sweet potatoes on the side: decadent.

okay, so i can not give oohs and ahhs to everything.

the pecan chicken faltered a tad [disclaimer, the initial choice was the surf & turf but a last minute change and the pecan was chosen] - and why is that?

it was crusted in pecans - a nut that turns rich and sweet when heated/roasted/fried and there was a bourbon cream sauce attached to the chicken and bourbon, again, when heated, because oddly sweet and the two sweets make it too sweet.

but! the chicken was perfectly cooked and not greasy or heavy.

perhaps someone who really enjoys this combo would like this but i like my sweets with savory to be heavier on the savory.

in hindsight, we would have definitely got the surf & turf, because who doesn’t love surf & turf?

vibrant bar scene, friendly staff and hearty portions + live jazz! i suggest you book your next rochester-ian here!

i was fortunate to snag a rsvp for myself and R for the buick discovery tour that was held this past weekend at the stamford sheraton.

it was fun and a nice way to enjoy a sunday afternoon: eating, drinking and driving [driving FIRST, then drinking]

from green mama’s blog:

Buick has partnered with Food & Wine magazine to bring this exclusive culinary event to Stamford, Connecticut. In addition to checking out the new vehicles, guests will have the opportunity to attend full cooking demonstrations and sample several dishes.Guests will experience the following discovery sessions:

• Cooking Demonstration with Food & Wine Best New Chef 2007 Gavin Kaysen, Executive Chef at Café Boulud in New York City and James Beard “Rising Star Chef” award winner
• Pastry Demonstration with Chef Ben Roche, Executive Pastry Chef of Moto in Chicago, Ill., and Co-Host of “Future Foods” on Discovery’s Planet Green Network
• Buick Test Drives, featuring the new Regal Turbo, Lacrosse and Enclave
• Wine Tasting with Michael Green
• Cooking Demonstration and Sampling with Celebrity Chef Michael Psilakis, owner of several New York City restaurants, including Kefi and Fish Tag;Psilakis has competed on The Food Network’s “Iron Chef America” and was named Food & Wine Best New Chef 2008 and Bon Appétit’s Chef of the Year 2008.

For every guest, Buick will make a donation to The FEED Foundation, in support of its efforts to create good products to help feed the world’s hungry, one bag at a time.