Published July 1, 2007.
For a home-style lamb sandwich recipe that would give us the same flavors and textures as restaurant gyros, even if they didn't have the traditional appearance, we pan-fried ground lamb patties flavored with oregano, onion, and minced garlic. To make the patties juicier, we added a panade (a paste of fresh bread crumbs and milk), substituting pita crumbs for the traditional bread crumbs. For readers who can’t easily find ground lamb, we developed a ground beef version of our lamb sandwich recipe.
Since the yogurt and cucumbers in the Tzatziki Sauce need to drain for 30 minutes, start making the sauce before the patties. Although we prefer the richness of plain whole-milk yogurt, low-fat yogurt can be substituted. Greek yogurt can also be substituted, but use 1/2 cup and skip the step of draining. While we didn’t like the flavor of dried mint, dried dill may be used in place of fresh, but reduce the amount to 1/2 teaspoon. For the patties, the test kitchen prefers the flavor of fresh oregano, but 1 teaspoon of dried can be substituted. The skillet may appear crowded when you begin cooking the patties, but they will shrink slightly as they cook. If using pocketless pitas, heat them in a single layer on a baking sheet in a 350-degree oven for 5 minutes. Do not cut top quarters off pocketless pitas; instead, use a portion of a fifth pita to create crumbs in step 1. When cooking the patties, use a splatter screen to keep the mess to a minimum. The patties can be prepared through step 1 and refrigerated for up to a day or frozen before cooking as directed in step 2 (frozen patties should be thawed in refrigerator prior to cooking). This recipe can be doubled.
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