Tzatziki Time

Well, dish number one from Signature Dishes from Around the World came out a success in my kitchen over the weekend. It was steamy here over the weekend and we had planned to grill out some burgers. The hubs says to me "Why aren't you just waiting until we make gyros for this tzatziki stuff?" I thought it would be wonderful for dipping veggies and pita chips. As most guys are, he isn't into dipping veggies in anything unless it's some celery in blue cheese following a chicken wing. By the end of the evening he was dipping EVERYTHING in this stuff (think Doritos). He also had a good idea for some Greek nachos that I'm going to try. Anywhoo, here's the deal:

The recipes in this book are written pretty simply and give a good deal of history. The first and very important step is to grate one cucumber over a colander. I used an English cucumber. One thing the recipe didn't say was to grate it into short, manageable ribbons in order to have it bite size in your dip. You then leave the cucumber to drain with a sprinkle of salt for an hour.

Once your cucumber has drained for an hour, squeeze it out in a clean kitchen towel to get rid of the excess liquid. Combine the cucumber with the following:

2 cups plain Greek yogurt
5 Tbsp EVOO
3 cloves of garlic, chopped and mashed
Dill and salt to taste

The book suggested grating the garlic into a paste using a mortar (which I don't have), so I just smushed it with my knife and some kosher salt until it formed a paste.

End Result!

Creamy, fresh, and delicious!