A Greek yogurt and cucumber sauce with garlic.
Gyros was Myra’s introduction into the whole food business. She made friends with the Greeks in her neighborhood in Detroit, and got them to give her their secret recipe. She learned how to make yogurt back when only hippies and immigrants did that sort of thing. She made 4 quarts at a time, in a Styrofoam cooler with a heating pad in the bottom.
She was interested in gyros after coming to visit me in Chicago. There was only one place in Cincinnati that had Greek food — Sebastian’s Gyros. Sebastian’s owner, Alex Sebastian, and mom would sometimes go in together and get a shipment of gyros meat from Chicago before you could get it in Cincinnati. They had a refrigerated storage space and would get a truck load brought down. Sebastian’s is still selling gyros in Price Hill in Cincinnati. Mom became more interested in other foods from other countries and vegetarian foods, but she always had Tzatziki on the menu. And she always had gyros.
You can watch a YouTube video of her here where she talks about all the years she made her own yogurt.
Tzatziki Sauce
Equipment
- 1 garlic press
- 1 small bowl I use a 4 cup measuring cup
- 1 set of measuring cups
Ingredients
- 2 buds garlic
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup cider vinegar
- 1/8 teas salt
- 1/4 teas black pepper
- 1/2 cup grated cucumber leave some of the green skin on
- 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt low fat or whole milk, your choice
Instructions
- Using a garlic press to crush cloves of garlic and add to your bowl with the olive oil. If you don't have a garlic press, you can crush and/or finely mince the garlic.
- Stir in the salt, pepper, grated cucumber and yogurt.
- Serve in a bowl garnished with slices of cucumber, or serve with pita bread, use as a salad dressing, or drizzle over gyros meat.
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