Moroccan Pita Sandwiches...

Since we had an unseasonable warm up this past weekend, Gus spent countless hours romping around the backyard...

Doesn't he look all ready for summer again? I'm sure he will be shocked back to reality in a few weeks when the snow comes back!

Before we went on vacation a few weeks ago, I picked up a bag of pitas and had good intentions to use them. However, I ended up tossing them into the freezer as time flew by and I never got around to them. I forgot about the little buggers until I did a quick sweep of the freezers to update the inventory list and figured it was time this week to bring them back out. I moved them to the counter this morning to thaw so we could make these Moroccan Pita Sandwiches for dinner tonight!

To prepare the patties we were going to slip into the soft pita breads, we worked quite a few ingredients into lean ground sirloin - finely chopped onion, a couple dollops of concentrated tomato paste, an egg, ground coriander, crushed fennel seeds, smoky cumin and two spices one might be more comfortable using in baking and not so much with savory meat.... cinnamon and ground ginger! Even if it seems too odd for you, go with it for now... you just might be surprised!

Shaped into small rounds, if you have a large enough skillet, which we do, brown all of the patties at once, then slide them into the oven for a gentle heat to finish them through. If you have a smaller skillet, opt to do these in two batches so you give them enough room to cook in the pan. Since they finish in the oven, doing a couple batches isn't a problem as they will all end up being warm in the end. You could probably even do them all on the stove if you like, but we stayed close to the recipe this time and liked the even results we got from the quick oven trip.

To add some moisture to the pitas, we whipped together a zesty sauce to spoon inside. Greek-style yogurt gave us a thick base to start, to which we added tahini, lemon zest, lemon juice and a single clove of minced garlic. For a bit of freshness and pop of color, thinly sliced tomato and little lettuce joined the party inside the pitas and we were set for dinner! Well-seasoned, with an interesting, complex twist from the sweet spices, the patties held together and stayed moist, but they were a bit on the small side for us. Both of us did comment how well we liked pairing the spiced burger with the sauce - so clean, refreshing and tangy!

Recipes
Moroccan Pita Sandwiches