the yummiest sunday souvlaki's ever!! (with homemade tzatziki)

this recipe is always a winner @ our place cause its not only super quick but unbelievably tasty! the meat can be marinated overnight but if you are a spur-of-the-moment kinda person you can get away with a half an hour marinating while you're slicing & dicing the rest of your ingredients....

the yummiest sunday souvlaki's ever!!! (with homemade tzatziki)

ingredients:

* 500grams of organic grain fed lamb back strap
(you are more than welcome to use whatever cut of lamb you like i just prefer to munch on an organic happy lamb thats had a nice life! :)
* a punnet of organic baby tomatoes
* a quarter of a iceburg lettuce (thats all i had in the fridge! feel free to gourmet it up with the leaves!!)
* 1/2 spanish onion sliced
* 4 cloves of garlic
* lebanese pita bread
* handfuls of oregano, thyme and marjoram (you can use whatever herbs you like best)
* maldon salt
* organic black pepper
* sweet smoked paprika
* 1 lemon
* spanish olive oil
* splash of white wine

for the tzatziki you will need:

* 1 organic lebanese cucumber
* 1/2 clove of garlic
* a pinch of maldon salt
* 500grams of natural greek yogurt
* glug of olive oil
* 2 or 3 fresh mint leaves


method:

1. grab your amazingly delicious lamb out of the fridge & cut it up into cubes of about 2x2cms and pop into a freezer bag.

2. put 4cloves of garlic into your mortar&pestle and roughly smash (you can just smash your garlic on a chopping board if you dont have a mortar&pestle) and then add a handful of all your herbs. i usually just rip the herbs up with my hands & pop them in... add a glug of olive oil & a pinch of salt&pepper along with 1/2 a teaspoon of your paprika... then add this mixture to your lamb.

its a lot easier to marinate the meat in a freezer bag as you can massage the garlic/herb mixture evenly through the lamb (but you could use a plastic container or any other tupperware type thingy if you like!)... i would recommend the meat marinate overnight but like i said before you can just marinate it while you tackle your tzatziki :) pop your marinated lamb into the fridge till you're ready to cook it....

3. now we can start on the homemade tzatziki. grab a bowl and grate your cucumber with the skin left on. when you're finished grating it put the cucumber into a colander & drain as much of the excess liquid from the pulp. put the cucumber back into the bowl & add your natural yogurt. mince 1/2 a clove of garlic (this will be super garlicky with 1/2 a clove so use your taste buds & adjust to your liking!) and then add a pinch of salt, glug of olive oil & a little fresh mint (this is also optional! ;)
pop the tzatziki into the fridge till later...

4. chop all your tomatoes, lettuce & onions and put into little bowls & refridgerate till needed...

5. heat 2 frying pans: 1 for the lamb and 1 for the pita bread...
(i would use a BBQ to cook the lamb if its a nice sunny day!) but if not, turn your stove to high heat and cook your lamb in a skillet or frying pan. once the oil is almost smoking add your lamb and cook for approx 4mins (again, use your taste buds! if you like your lamb over cooked then cook it longer! ;) just before taking off the heat add a splash of white wine to de-glaze the pan and cook off the alcohol.
in the other pan heat a little bit of olive oil in the pan and heat up & slightly brown your pita bread....

6. assemble your souvlaki with heaps of garlickly tzatziki, the lamb, tomatoes, spanish onions, another lashing of tzatziki & a good squeeze of lemon juice to finish! grab a few cold beers out of the fridge & there you have it.... the yummiest summer souvlaki's ever!! (with homemade tzatziki)