Seitan gyros

One of the things I appreciated so much about Jonathan Safron Foer's book Eating Animals, is how much of the book he devotes to discussing the power food has over us emotionally; how we are nostalgically attached to the recipes and tastes of our childhoods; how we might work hard as parents to create "food memories" for our own children because we need to pass them on. If as adults we make food choices that prevent us from sharing these memories with our kids, we might mourn this loss, deeply and profoundly. This is why, Foer argues, we find it so easy to defend our food choices--our consumption of factory-farmed meat, our emotional attachment to recipes our grandmothers might once have used, our steadfast certainty that we "can't live without it." There are many foods from my own childhood that my children have never tasted--my grandmother's Sunday pot roast, for instance, or the olive-speckled mortadella slices that were the mainstay of so many childhood lunches when we were in Greece for the summer. My grandmother would roll up the mortadella and secure the rolls with toothpicks. She'd create a pretty platter filled with those slices, cucumber sticks, olives, and chunks of feta cheese. Now, of course, I'm a little grossed out to know what mortadella really is. But still, I feel a strange nostalgia for it, even though I've been a vegetarian for fourteen years now, and haven't tasted it in a good long while. And my grandmother's Sunday pot roast was something we all lived for, all week long. She'd serve it with macaronia--spaghetti, and the sauce was thick and fragrant from fresh tomatoes and the juices of the roast. My children have never tasted her roast, nor countless other meat-based dishes from my own childhood; those Sunday dinners belong to the past, and while I can tell stories of them to my own kids, I can never fully recreate the taste of those memories. My kids will grow up with their own food memories; some I have pulled along with me from the past, others they will pull along with them, into the future, into the meals they'll cook one day, maybe for families of their own. ************* I was sitting in a meeting last week, running through some lists of things in my head and wishing I was home cooking dinner (I was starving) instead of sitting there. Suddenly, out of the blue, came a vision: I had the perfect idea for how to make a vegetarian gyros sandwich, using seitan. It struck me suddenly that seitan was the perfect substitute for the lamb that is often in a Greek gyros. An authentic Greek gyros is filled with very thin shaved meat, and then stuffed with tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, onion, and often a few French fries. The first time Scott and I had a vegetarian version of a Greek gyros we were in Santorini, for our honeymoon. Our hotel overlooked street with a few shops and on one corner was a gyros stand. One afternoon, walking back from the beach hungry in that empty stomach way you get when you've spent the morning swimming in clear water, under a wide, blue, Greek sky, we were hit by the otherworldy smell of gyros sandwiches. Even though we were both vegetarians, this didn't stop us from craving one for ourselves. "Let's see if they'll make us one without the meat," Scott, always the food optimist, suggested. We asked and the man making the gyros didn't bat an eyelid, but set to work stuffing the pita bread (the pita used in Greece for gyros sandwiches is VERY different from the flat, anemic looking pita bread you buy here) with creamy tzaziki sauce, onions, tomatoes, and, as a finishing touch, a generous handful of hot French fries. We sat there, on a low wall, the hot sun across our arms and legs, and gobbled the gyros down. They were so good that Scott promptly bought another one. The whole rest of our stay in Santorini we lived on those sandwiches. They were cheap, delicious, and just utterly amazing. And I made the most perfect replica of those vegetarian gyros at home on Friday, in my own kitchen, miles and miles away from Greece. Seitan Gyros (vegan/vegetarian, depending on the type of bread you use) First, here's what you'll need to buy ahead of time: Naan bread, plain (I used the Whole Foods 365 brand of Tandoori naan). This most closely replicates the pita bread used in Greece. Sadly, naan is not vegan, so I had to have my gyros with the above mentioned anemic pita bread. Grill the Naan/pita in your oven for a little bit in the oven, just so it softens and warms. Greek seasoning--this is my favorite kind. They didn't have it at Whole Foods, but I found it at our local grocery store. Seitan. I use the West Soy brand. Vegan tzatziki. This recipe for a vegan tsatziki is out of this world. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, so I bought a container of tzatziki from Whole Foods for Scott, just in case the vegan version was a flop. It wasn't, though. I was so happy. One large, ripe tomato, diced 1/2 or 1/4 red onion, diced Cucumber, diced--as little or as much as you like 2 cloves of garlic, chopped French fries. I baked a 1/4 of a package of frozen fries while I was busy assembling everything else. After you've prepared all the fixings for the gyros, open up the seitan and cut or gently tear into medallions. In a large frying pan, saute the seitan with garlic, oil and Greek seasoning (use as little or as much as you like), until lightly browned, remove from heat. Take your warmed naan/pita bread out of the oven (don't let it get hard!), and spread a generous amount of vegan tsatziki over one side. Add tomatoes, onions, cucumbers. Add some of the seitan, and top with French fries, and another sprinkle of Greek seasonings. Fold the naan bread over and eat, warm. I can't figure out a way to replicate a hot, Santorinian summer afternoon, nor can I turn back the clock some fourteen years and find myself footloose and carefree, young and newly married, with the years and years stretching ahead, shining like the sea at dawn. But, at least, it's comforting to recreate a taste from my past, a taste that brought us back in time, even after having traveled so many miles away. Approaching Santorini by boat. Behind that camera was 26-year old me.