Low-fat beef pockets easy to make at home

Advertiser Staff and News Services

In the big cities of the East, gyros (yee-ros) — spit-skewered lamb, served in a pita pocket with vegetables and yogurt sauce — is common street food. Although you can find the occasional gyros sandwich here, they're hard to come by, and Hawai'i folk in general aren't much for lamb.

This low-fat version of the dish, made with beef, is an easy home option, fancy enough to serve if friends are coming over for lunch on a weekend. The sandwiches go together quickly. You can prepare the yogurt dressing in advance, marinate the beef and roast the tomatoes and even set the pita in the oven to get warm, but don't fry the beef or put the sandwiches together until just before serving.

For a vegetarian version, marinate tofu slices 10 minutes, reserve remaining marinade and bake tofu (bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes a side); this can be done well in advance. Cool baked tofu and set aside. Just before serving, boil reserved marinade, cut tofu into strips and drizzle marinade over tofu. Put sandwiches together as in directions.

The recipe was devised by Hilda and Ray Marangosian of San Mateo, Calif., and featured in the April issue of Sunset magazine.

Spiced Beef Pockets

• 2 pounds boned beef sirloin steak, fat trimmed
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 12 Roma tomatoes (2 pounds total)
• 6 pocket breads (6 to 7 inches wide), cut in half crosswise
• Salt
• 1/2 cup thinly slivered red onion
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1 cup diced dill pickles or cucumber
• 1 cup Sesame Yogurt Sauce (recipe follows)

Rinse beef and pat dry; slice crosswise into 1/8 inch-thick strips 2 1/2 inches long. In a bowl, mix beef, lemon juice, allspice and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; let stand 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, rinse and core tomatoes; cut each in half lengthwise. Set halves, skin up, in a 10- by 15-inch baking pan. Broil about 4 inches from heat until richly browned, 6 to 9 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 200. Stack pocket breads and wrap in foil. Warm in oven with tomatoes until ready to serve, 5 to 10 minutes.

Set a 10- to 12-inch nonstick frying pan over high heat. When hot, add beef mixture; stir until meat is no longer pink, 4 to 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer beef to a wide bowl or platter. Boil juices until reduced to 1/4 cup, 2 to 4 minutes; pour over meat. Stir in salt to taste.

Arrange tomatoes beside beef. Sprinkle onions and parsley over meat. Serve pocket breads, pickles and Sesame Yogurt Sauce alongside. To eat, spoon beef mixture, tomatoes, onion and pickles into pocket bread halves. Add yogurt sauce to taste.

Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 438 calories, 42 g protein, 8.8 g total fat (2.7 g saturated fat), 47 g carbohydrates, 788 mg sodium, 93 mg cholesterol.

Sesame Yogurt Sauce

• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
• Salt and pepper

In a 6- to 8-inch frying pan over medium heat, stir sesame seeds until golden, 2 to 3 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix yogurt, garlic and toasted sesame seeds. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Makes about 1 cup.

Nutrition information per 1-tablespoon serving: 11 calories, 0.9 g pro., 0.3 g fat (0.1 g saturated fat), 1.3 g carbohydrates, 11 mg sodium, 0.3 mg cholesterol.