On the heat. Mild

Ingredients

• 800 g lamb, cubed or in strips
• 100 ml olive oil · juice of 2 lemons
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp dried oregano · 1 tsp thyme
• 2 tsp salt · black pepper
• — TZATZIKI
• 400 g thick yoghurt
• 1 cucumber, grated and squeezed dry
• 2 cloves garlic · 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar · dill
• Pitas, tomato, red onion, chips

Method

1. Marinate the lamb 4 hours. Not longer — beyond about six hours the lemon starts cooking the surface and the texture goes chalky.
2. Squeeze the grated cucumber genuinely dry before it goes into the yoghurt. Everything else in, rest one hour.
3. Very hot grill or coals. Skewers on, 3 minutes a side for cubes, 90 seconds total for strips in a hot pan.
4. Warm the pitas over the coals for 20 seconds a side.
5. Build: tzatziki on the pita first, then meat, tomato, onion, and a few hot chips inside — which is how it is actually served in Greece.
6. Roll tight in paper and eat immediately.

Cook's note. Dried oregano, not fresh. Greek dried oregano is a different ingredient from the fresh herb and there is no substituting one for the other here.

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