Tzatziki

Strained yoghurt with cucumber squeezed dry, where every step is about taking water out before it can thin the bowl.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (yoghurt).

Ingredients

• 500 g thick Greek yoghurt
• 1 large cucumber
• 2 teaspoons salt, for drawing the cucumber
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• a small handful of dill, chopped
• salt and pepper

Method

1. THE CUCUMBER IS SALTED AND WRUNG OUT, and the amount of water that comes out of it is the reason. A grated cucumber is about ninety-five per cent water and will give up half a cupful; stirred in unsalted, it turns a thick bowl into a pale soup within twenty minutes, and nothing added afterwards thickens it again.
2. WRING IT IN A CLOTH, NOT A SIEVE. Pressing with a spoon takes out perhaps half of what a twisted cloth does, and the difference is visible in the finished bowl.
3. Cucumber grated coarsely, skin and all, into a bowl.
4. Salt scattered over, turned through, and left 20 minutes. Liquid will pool at the bottom.
5. Tipped into a clean tea towel, gathered up and TWISTED HARD over the sink until no more runs out. It should end up a tight dry ball weighing about a third of what went in.
6. Garlic crushed with a little salt to a smooth paste. Lumps of chopped garlic give an uneven bowl where one mouthful is fierce and the next is nothing.
7. Yoghurt into a bowl with the garlic, oil and vinegar, stirred until smooth.
8. Cucumber broken up with the fingers as it goes in, so it does not stay as one pressed lump, and folded through.
9. Dill, salt and pepper. Tasted -- it should be sharper than seems right, because it flattens as it sits.
10. Covered and chilled at least 2 hours. It is noticeably better on the second day and keeps three.
11. A film of olive oil poured over the top before serving.

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