Skordalia

Garlic pounded into potato with oil beaten in, where the potato must be worked by hand or it turns to glue.

Vegan.

Ingredients

600 g floury potatoes, peeled and in large chunks
8 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon coarse salt
200 ml olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons cold water, if needed
white pepper

Method

THE POTATO IS NEVER PUT IN A PROCESSOR. A food processor ruptures the starch cells and what comes out is wallpaper paste -- grey, stretchy and unspreadable -- within about four seconds. It is a fault no amount of oil corrects. Mash it by hand, or push it through a ricer, and stop the moment it is smooth.
AND THAT IS THE OPPOSITE DANGER FROM TARAMASALATA, which is the other emulsion on this site and is beaten in a machine for five minutes on purpose. There the roe needs the work; here the potato cannot take it.
Potatoes boiled from cold in salted water, 20 minutes, until a knife slides out without lifting them.
DRAINED AND LEFT IN THE HOT DRY PAN 2 MINUTES with the lid off, so the surface water steams away. A wet potato gives a sauce that will not take the oil.
Riced or mashed while hot and left to cool to warm. Boiling hot it will split the oil; stone cold it will not absorb it.
Garlic pounded with the coarse salt in a mortar to a completely smooth cream. The salt is the abrasive and does the work; chopped garlic leaves hot flecks that ruin a mouthful at a time.
Garlic paste stirred into the warm potato with a wooden spoon.
NOW THE OIL, and here it goes in fast -- a steady stream while stirring in one direction, not drop by drop. The starch is already holding water and takes the oil readily. Stirring, not beating.
Vinegar in at the end, a tablespoon at a time, tasting. It should be sharp enough to make you blink.
Cold water beaten in only if it is stiffer than soft butter.
Left 1 hour before serving. The garlic grows noticeably fiercer over the first few hours and then settles; made the day before it is milder than intended.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes