Gyro-Style Zucchini Sandwiches

I had one of those moments where I said, "More zucchini?  ^^ Oh!  Thanks! ^^"  (Yes, those are my sarcastic eye-brows.)

And uhhhhhhhhh..........

I have come to realize - zucchini is the tofu of the vegetable world.  You can make it almost whatever you want it to be.  But MAKE is the key.  You must MAKE it into what you want.
So this time, I will make it into a tasty sandwich.  Today, next week, and a couple of times in the future.

Now it was time to press on.
Several of them were grated for their role in zucchini pancakes and Mexican chocolate zucchini bread, but there is still more zucchini coming!

And it's not just one kind of zucchini.  It is many kinds of zucchini - 

Oh yeah, and summer squash - the zephyr yellow green (above) and the patty pan (below).

And dinner.  It is time for dinner.  And I have a thing about zucchini that's only been cooked enough to be hot, but the zucchini is soft... and to my tongue... slimy.  I like to get the excess water out of my zucchini.  (Unless it is tiny - then char and eat crunchy!!!)

What the heck - lets go for something where it is so dry, it is pleasantly chewy.  Gyros.  And that means I get to use the one herb that loves my yard - oregano.

All righty then.  I sliced my zucchini into rectangles.

This was the 3 zucchini in the 3rd picture.
I cut off the crooknecks and they
went into the tomato relish.

So - start taking the water out with a marinade and drain.

Salt, pepper, onion powder.
Alternate zucchini and sprinkle of seasoning mixture

Zucchini draining marinade: sprinkle a mix of 1 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper and 1 tsp of onion powder.  Zucchini, sprinkle, layer zucchini, sprinkle etc.....

The salt and onion powder are both very good at sucking water out of the zucchini, while adding flavor.

And after an hour of draining I pulled out the zucchini slices.  I did use my fingers to strip off most of the spices so they wouldn't be too salty.

I tossed the drained zucchini with a little olive oil, chopped garlic and oregano.  And then grilled the heck out of those drained zucchini slices. 

Zucchini Grilling Toss:
oil - 2 tsp
garlic - 2 cloves
oregano (& basil or parsley) small handful, chopped

I love my cast iron griddle.
These slices will cook just as well in a skillet
or on the grill - as long as they are thick enough. 

As far as I'm concerned, half the experience of gyros are the sauces - and I love an excellent tzatziki.

"Traditional" tzatziki always contains yogurt (thicker the better - check), cucumbers (check), some acid (lemon juice or maybe vinegar - check), often chopped garlic (check) and herbs (often dill and/or mint - welllllllll...........)

So I did a little digging, and it turns out the actual combination of herbs is less important.  Tzatziki, it turns out, belongs to a Mediterranean family of sauces that contain thick yogurt, cucumber, acid, (sometimes garlic) and herbs (also cacik, jaj, or even tarator - hey I bet tatar sauce has some history with....  And while raita - of Indian origin with yogurt, cucumbers, garlic & salt, but often has chilies in it, I can't believe it has no relation.)  So the fact that I had no dill or mint, but instead parsley, oregano and cilantro presented no problem.

Summer Tzatziki (cacik, jaj, tarator or mild "no chili" raita) 

can be thrown together this way:

Ingredients:

cucumber - 1 medium

garlic - 1-2 cloves (you decide)

lemon juice* or vinegar 1-2 tsp (you also decide)

salt (& pepper if you like) to taste

tender leaf herbs (anything you'd eat out of hand*) a handful or 2.

Equipment:

knife

cutting board

bowl - for draining

bowl - for serving

Prep:

Peel the cucumber and chop into cubes about the size of the top joint of your pinky (under 1/2", close to 1/4"), sprinkle with about 1/2 tsp of salt and let it sit for about 30 - 60 min.

Cook:  

Quickly rinse the cucumber, and squeeze it dry in a paper towel or two.  Stir the cucumber

Chop the garlic and herbs.

Stir them into the yogurt.  Add lemon juice/vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

This will keep for a week and a bit in the fridge.  But you'll likely eat it all up - on this, and crackers, pretzels and as a dressing.  (It can be thinned with dairy, oil or vinegar & oil)

(Nom, nom, nom... sampling, sampling.  No really!  This is for research.)

*tender leaf herbs - these are the things you'd chop up and happily eat raw.  Basil, sorrel, parsley, cilantro, dill, fennel, chives, mint and the like.

*******

Half way there.  

Since I was serving this to my raw tomato hating husband... but I wanted the sweet/acid punch of tomato along with the herby, creamy yogurt, I had to come up with...

Sundried Tomato Relish

Ingredients:

1/4 C sun/oven dried tomatoes packed in oil

1/4 C roughly chopped zucchini (this is where those crook neck pieces went)

1 tsp (or so) white balsamic vinegar (champagne or cane juice vinegar will sub in.  Or rice vinegar in a pinch)

salt & pepper to taste

Equipment:

blender

Blend the tomatoes and zucchini together.  Then adjust the sweet/sour balance with the vinegar, and add just enough salt and pepper to make it taste delicious.  This will be pretty thick and spreadable, and good for this sandwich and many others.

*****

Then all you need is the warmed pita bread, add the grilled, spice zucchini, tzatziki, tomato relish and even a confirmed carnivore will enjoy.

Pro Tip: As long as you state Up Front that this is a Zucchini Sandwich in the gyro style, even Total Carnivores will be happy.  Only people who feel like they've been fooled will be annoyed.  And even they might forgive you.

P.S. For make ahead fans:  This zucchini can fridge or freeze and then be heated in the toaster or re-roasted in the oven... and still work!

P.P.S.  Some people feel that a tahini drizzle is essential for a true gyro experience.  I'm on board.  In fact, I have a recipe.  Drizzle away.  (Tahini is part of umami heaven).

Tahini Drizzle: for extras

Tahini - 2Tbs (or 3 Tbs sesame seeds ground to paste)

garlic - 1 clove crushed or minced

salt - 1 pinch

oil - 2 tsp (olive is best)

lemon juice - 2 tsp (or cider vinegar)

parsley (optional) - healthy sprinkle

Karate Smoothies

I got the chance to go work out with some great people from my dojo, and a special guest instructor (who is one of the most amazing teachers I get to watch) for a weekend.

I wanted to eat well, and the best way to do that seemed to be to ask to be in charge of the food.  They let me.

So both mornings I wanted a tasty breakfast with some sugars to wake us up, but some protein to keep us going.... oh and fast prep, fast service and simple clean-up.  (We were serving 17!)

A smoothie with apples-and-peanut butter, or toast-and-something fueled everyone for a rather intense morning.

(This was for a dairy free crowd - so we went the silken tofu route.  Yogurt adds a bit of sour.  Both work and whichever is good for you is the right one.)

Smoothies

Make these with some frozen fruit – no ice cubes needed

Equipment:

blender

large spoon

drinking vessel(s)

Ingredients:

2 handfuls of fruit (frozen/partly thawed) – about 1C

1 large spoonful of yogurt or silken tofu – about 1/3 C

juice

(Using fresh fruit?  Add a handful of ice cubes as well.)

Cook!

In a blender, add two handfuls of frozen fruit, a heaping  spoonful of yogurt or silken tofu, and pour juice of your choice into the blender jar until it comes up to the top of the frozen fruit.

Place the lid on the blender.  Start blending at a lower speed.  Then turn up the power and blend until smooth.  Pour into your drinking vessel(s).

Enjoy.

Some combinations to begin with:

peaches and orange juice

raspberries and cranberry juice

plums and carrot juice

cherries and pomegranate juice

strawberries, melon and orange juice

apples, pears, mint and apple cider

frozen blackberries - and protein boost of your choice.
 I also added peaches to this smoothie - but thawing
peaches aren't as pretty.

It is hard to go wrong, and combinations of whatever fruit you have on hand is usually what works best. 

Using a combination of fresh and frozen fruit is a great option as well, or let tomorrow’s frozen fruit melt a bit in the fridge over night.

Feel free to get adventurous by adding more savory flavors, like cucumber and leafy greens.  Learn what you like and makes you feel good.

Yogurt results - Sous Vide style

How do you like your yogurt? 

I'm a thick, slightly tangy yogurt lover.  Like the kind I met in Greece, and is (for me) best replicated by the Fage brand.  They are one of the few companies that actually strains their yogurt of enough of the excess whey to give it the right consistency.

Plenty of other people like theirs softer, more liquid or tangier. These are also completely in your reach even without adding gelatin, seaweed extracts, starch, or other odd bits added to the grocery store stuff that keeps it dependable and more shelf stable as it travels about.

Tangy?

The tanginess has to do with the length of fermentation.  The longer the little milk digesting bacteria are left to do their work the more acid they produce.  

Lactose, the main sugar in milk is digested and turned into lactic acid.  This is why "lactose intolerant" individuals can eat yogurt.  The lactose is eaten up, gone!  Turned into lactic acid.

This is also why coconut milk yogurt works - there are sugars and proteins in there.  The bacteria eat the sugar, and produce acid.  These acids will then coagulate (turn solid) the dissolved proteins.  But there are  fewer proteins in coconut milk, so you get a thinner yogurt.

Soy milk can be made into yogurt only if there is some sugar added to it.  The bacteria need something to eat and and turn to acid if the soy proteins are going to coagulate.  (Most soy milk you buy at the store has some sort of sugar, so it is all set to go.)

Thick or Thin?
So what mediates the thickness?  How hot you get your milk.  The warmer the milk gets, the more the protein strands unravel, so they can recombine tighter, and in larger groups resulting in a thicker yogurt when hit with the lactic acid.  If you heat up your milk to a lower temperature, the resulting yogurt will be looser.

Creamy?
This is all down to fat content.  If you have non-fat milk, there will be no fat.  The yogurt will be good, but it won't have the creamy richness of the fat.  It's not a problem, just understand there is no way to simulate the particular mouth feel of fat.
Straining the yogurt to concentrate the solids will give it a richer texture, but it is still not the same as the creaminess you'd get with whole milk.

So what milks work?
For dairy milk - all of them. The stuff in the cartons, raw milk, box milk, powdered milk.  I've seen claims that ultra-pasturized or UHT milks won't work.  Not so.  Milk turns to yogurt because you introduce particular bacteria into a liquid full of nutrients and relatively empty of other bacteria.
The bacteria are individual cells on the hunt for sugar, and when they find it, they eat it.  Well fed, warm bacteria multiply, sending out more copies of themselves to find and digest the rest of the sugar.

Regular milk, the stuff we think of when we think of milk, has a pretty low concentration of bacteria.  Since we keep it cold, what bacteria that is still in there has little chance to grow and ferment the milk.  But as we all know, given long enough this milk will go bad.

Raw milk has more bacteria, but it is largely person friendly since its source is an animal that lives closely with humans.  What's good for the cow gut is good for ours as well.

Powdered milk in its powdered form is free from any active bacteria since there is no water for the bacteria to live in.  Once you rehydrate it (add water), it is just as open a canvas for the bacteria to move in.  So populate it with your yogurt culture, and you'll get what you want.  The down side?  It'll still taste like powdered milk.

Ultra-pasturized and UHT (Ultra High Temperature) dairy products are super squeaky clean, (neither is sterile - that's a whole different ball game), but are so barren of bacteria they will keep extra long before going sour.  And if that's what you have to work with they will do just fine, providing the materials your yogurt culture needs to live and grow.

'Nuff Biology.  How Do I Make Yogurt? 


Get your milk. 2-4 C is a nice amount to start with.
Not too much yogurt results, but enough to make it worth all the fiddling about.

Choose your fermentation container of choice, it needs to come with a lid.
Heavy glass jars are nice since they are reusable and easy to get super squeaky clean.  I like 1 C canning jars (but only fill them about 3/4 full or a little more) so I end up with individual servings.  And the canning lid rests on top nicely.  No need for the screw on part.
There are special yogurt jars, but - ehh?
Glazed pottery works fine too, but you need to find a lid.  In China they rubber-banded wax paper over the top - so it need not be high tech.

Get some (plain) yogurt with live active cultures.
These days most yogurts have the live cultures, but read the label just to be sure.  Plain yogurt just simplifies things.  (Dairy free people - get coconut or soy - still works!)

Get a cooking thermometer
I LOVE my Thermapen, a digital instant read

but a candy thermometer will serve as well.

A small bowl, a fork/whisk and a ladle
These are for mixing warm milk with the yogurt and moving hot milk about with the least injury to people.

Heat the milk to:  Stir over medium to medium-high heat.  Watch the temp with the thermometer.

120F - 160F super loose.  In fact if you want "yogurt" like you are used to you'll need to add some powdered milk, gelatin or tapioca starch.

165F - 175F for loose yogurt.  This can be drinkable after it is stirred.

175F - 180F for firmer yogurt

180F - 185F the thickest yogurt, but not yet grainy (185 is my sweet spot)

190F - boiling (212F) - starts to get a grainy texture.  You are entering fresh cheese territory here.  It will make a quick and dirty firm yogurt, but the texture won't be smooth.  (How do I know?  I tried.  Not my fave, but I will be straining it to make yogurt cheese.  No reason to waste those tasty coagulated proteins).

Let it cool:  Either set it over an ice bath, or do other stuff in the kitchen and check on it until it hits

110F - 100F  If it gets below 90F, you'll need to go through the heating part all over again.  I got super paranoid my first time, worried it wasn't exactly 112F.  Yeah, not such a big deal.  Just keep it over 90F.

Ladle some of the warm milk into the small bowl.  Use the fork/whisk to stir the still warm milk with 1Tbs plain yogurt for each cup you are making (more or less).  Pour this back into the big batch of milk.
Ladle this into your fermenting jars.

Ferment!
Sous vide style - Pop your jars into a warm water bath somewhere between 100 - 115 (108 is the nice middle where I like to hang out).  Cover the jars so condensation doesn't drip in.  Let it go for 4-8 hours.  (Depending on temperature, culture and how tangy you like it, 3-12 hours is a realistic range.)

Higher temps mean faster fermentation - thus faster coagulation and more whey, and sometimes a grainier texture.
Lower temps mean slower fermentation - so the curd forms more slowly, and typically incorporates more whey, and a generally creamier texture.

Cooler & a bowl of boiling water - 
Line a cooler with a towel/towels.  Place a large (8-12 C) bowl in one side, and the yogurt jars in the other. Use the towel to wrap and prop everybody up sturdily.  Fill the bowl about 2/3 with boiling water, close the lid and let it sit about 6 hours.

Blanket and a heating pad - 
This was the first way I made yogurt, and I didn't love the result.  But it was definitely yogurt.  It was a high temperature ferment of a mix that had powdered milk and honey added.

This works best if you have all your milk in a cylindrical container.  Wrap a heating pad around the container, then insulate it in blankets.  Set your heating pad to medium to start, and keep an eye on the temp.  Adjust to low or high to keep the temperature at the range you want for 4-8 hours.
(For me - if I'm going with a hack, I want a low maintenance one.  This one wasn't.)

In all cases - take out your jars.  Does the yogurt look solid-ish?  If so, pop them in the fridge, let them cool down the rest of the way.

Ta-Da! you have yogurt.

Then add honey, fruit whatever.  And use it in place of sour cream.  It has the same tang and it won't break apart when heated.  I tried adding honey before I fermented. Not worth it.  Just top your yogurt with what you want when you want to eat it.  Again, it makes the whole thing simpler.

So many options!!!!!
The thing that struck me are the ridiculous range of options out there when making yogurt - how high or low to heat your milk, fermentation temperature, additions (powdered milk, honey, gelatin, starch...).  But what it comes down to, yogurt is the kind of thing that happens even when you aren't trying.  So the recipe is very forgiving, and all that really matters is what you prefer.

And if you made yogurt, but want it thicker, wrap it in a tea-towel or plop it in a coffee filter.  Put in in a colander over a bowl for a few hours.  Ta-da thicker yogurt.  Or yogurt cheese. depending on how long you left it.

Like I said... so many options.

If you are not a fan of the thermometer, and have a crock pot, check out this recipe:
Crockpot Yogurt
and then the add-on
Coconut Milk Crockpot Yogurt (will most likely work for all sorts of other non-dairy milks)

28,000 Words

Draft 1 is off to the editor!

The cookbook is leaving the coop.  I can quit pounding the keys and obsessing over words, and let someone else do it for me for a bit.  Until I get it back.

In the meantime - the yogurt results are just around the corner.

One thing I've run across is everyone has their favorite kind of yogurt, and give the recipe for that.  But different yogurts are good for different things.

So clearly the internet needs a table of temperatures and times.

OK really, yogurt is something people have been making with out thermometers and sterile containers for ages.  (And my first off the cuff attempt is disappearing rapidly.)  But hey, we are who we are.  And I have a SousVide, an instant read digital thermometer, and a biology degree.  So - WEEKEND PROJECT!

Step 1. Get some good Honey
Step 2. Don't eat all of last weeks yogurt
Step 3. Don't forget to use BOTH the regular milk and the ultra-pasturized (and powdered milk only... that sounds like a challenge!!!!!)  There is the contention that U-P won't work.  But biology says it should work just fine, U-P should mean that it has fewer fermenters than usual, so if inoculating the milk, it really seems like it means a freer field for the new inhabitants.  But we will see!