“Recipe: Greek Tzatziki

τζατζίκι a perfect spicy yogurt dip for deep fried chicken nuggets, a spread on bread, to add to your curry, or use as sauce on vegetables.

ingredients:

• 1 liter Greek yogurt (2 liters of strained plain yogurt with no sugar)
• 1 lemon
• 1-2 cucumbers
• Greek olive oil, preferably from Crete with a PDO stamp.
• 8-12 cloves of garlic (half to 3/4 of a whole garlic)
• oregano
• pepper
• salt

method:

1. Use garlic press, and crush garlic, put it in a big bowl.
2. Use food processor to pulverize the cucumbers. Don’t remove the skin, you want that for colour.
3. Squeeze out water from the cucumbers using cheesecloth, or those cloths used for steaming rice, then add to the bowl.
4. Add olive oil. I don’t measure, but I figure it must be about 100-200 ml of oil. I drizzle it for about 5-8 seconds.
5. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
6. Cut lemon in half, and squeeze out the juice. NOTE: You can balance the ‘spicyness’ of the garlic by using more lemon juice and olive oil if you think you made it too ‘garlicky’. Follow my recommendation for now but experiment with balance of cucumber/oil/lemon in the future.
7. Add the yogurt.
8. Mix well with a spatula.
9. Put it in airtight containers, preferably glass ones like Lock&Lock containers. If unopened, and you don’t contaminate the containers with saliva (scoop it into a bowl to enjoy!), it will last 2-4 weeks.

NOTES:

• Greek yogurt: I make my own because it’s far cheaper than what Costco sells, and has a stronger kick but that’s for another post.
• Greek olive oil: I recommend Cretan Mythos brand and Bonum Terrae. This oil can be found at City! Super, and Jason’s Marketplace in Taiwan.
• Protected Designation of Origin: This ensures the oil you are getting is not mixed with oil from elsewhere.

#food #recipe #GreekFood”,