Tzatziki Recipe

Tzatziki

Recipe by Jackie Cameron

Every restaurant I visited in Dubai included hummus (chickpea paste), baba ghanoush (a Middle Eastern puree of eggplant), tzatziki (Greek dip of cucumber and yoghurt), tabbouleh (Lebanese salad of bulgur wheat and vegetables) and fattoush (Levantine salad with toasted pita bread) on the menu. All were served with pita bread and accompanied main courses of chicken, lamb and or fish. Dried limes and spices were the norm as were goat’s cheese, eggs, olives, honey, fruit, almonds and dates. A favourite of mine, the most popular dessert in the UAE, was UmAli which means “queen of puddings”. Scrumptious!

Yields : one small bowl size

Ingredients :

1 medium or 1 1/3 cup grated Cucumber

30 ml Salt

1 cup Plain Yoghurt

5 ml finely chopped Mint

5-10 ml finely chopped Garlic

Salt and Pepper

Method :

1) Grate the cucumber and lightly sprinkle or degorge, French term meaning to draw out moisture, with the 30 ml salt amount. Place this into a colander and allow to stand with a bowl underneath for a few minutes.  (This “degorging” works brilliantly when making cucumber sandwiches as it extracts all the moisture so soggy sandwiches are not a result. You can leave your salted cucumbers in a colander over night for best results.)  Wash the cucumber in running cold water. Squeeze out any excess liquid.

2) Take this cucumber mixture and add the yoghurt, mint, garlic, salt and pepper. Be careful not to over-salt

3) Serve with Pita bread and/or biscuits as a dip. Or as a accompaniment for seafood dishes. Tzatziki also compliments lamb dishes extremely well.

Please post your comments and any food-related questions below.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Jackie Cameron 
Head Chef 
Hartford House
www.hartford.co.za
jackie@hartford.co.za
+27 33 263 2713

Comments

[Desiree Gibbon]

I love tzatziki and saw a good tip on Ina Garten's version of making it. She placed the plain yoghurt in a muslim cloth in a sieve over a bowl in the fridge overnight to remove excess moisture, which resulted in thick yoghurt and the end dish was not watery at all.

[Jackie Cameron]

Hi Desiree,

Thanks for this comment. I will definitely try this next time as I am interested in the thought that grated cucumber on standing within yoghurt will not release any moisture.

Thanks for this. Appreciated and have a lovely day further.

Yours in hospitality
Jackie Cameron
(Head Chef)