Summer in Season - Dill
Friday, August 5, 2005 8:53
When the herb garden spills over with dill (or you find it for cheap at the farmers’ market), you can snip a few fronds, then serve a lemon and dill cream sauce over grilled salmon, or maybe make some dill pickles. Or you can do the only thing I ever do with dill - make tzatziki, a Greek yogurt and cucumber sauce to serve over grilled meats, spread on pita, or dip veggies. Along with hummus and baba ghanouj, it makes a great trio of Greek mezze with pita bread.
Greek style yogurt isn’t as easy to find, so plain, full-fat yogurt, drained in cheesecloth in a sieve will work. While the yogurt is draining, grate cucumber, sprinkle with salt and let stand for a few minutes to pull out the water. Squeeze all the water out of the grated cucumber.
About two cups of drained, now-thick, yogurt simply gets mixed with a clove of minced garlic, a few tablespoons of lemon juice, and the salted, squozen cucumber. At the end, snip in a few tablespoons of fresh dill, depending on how dill-y you like things.
Very refreshing!
By sarah (see more of her posts). You can find more of sarah's writing at her own website The Delicious Life
Jonah says:
August 5th, 2005 at 9:04 am
I love tzatziki, and sometimes it’s good with just a little bit of mint.
SoCalorie says:
August 5th, 2005 at 9:17 am
Anyone tried goat milk’s yogurt?
MaxMillion says:
August 5th, 2005 at 3:41 pm
I have tried several goats milk yoghurts. I can’t really recommend any of them, though a good source for fantastic chevre (goats milk cheeses) is Redwood Hill Farms.
http://www.redwoodhill.com/order.htm
I think Wholefoods carries some of their products, including their yoghurt. I order little 4 oz tubs of the plain chevre from them and freeze them. It’s the best I’ve ever had.
As for Greek-style yoghurt — that can be found at Trader Joes. I think it’s called Fage Total Authentic Greek-style yoghurt. The smallest tub comes with its own attached mini tub of really good honey. The texture is perfectly thick and creamy and it is very tasty with or without the honey. Great for cooking and especially for tzatziki, which tends to thin when combined with the cucumber, right? Simply can’t make it with that crappy, low fat, thin, soupy yoghurt that most shelves are crammed with. Ugh! And what’s up with no-fat yoghurt, anyway? What the hell is it, then?!
Oh, my all time favourite yoghurt is strawberry Emmi from Switzerland which, while purporting to be made from low-fat milk, certainly doesn’t taste like it! Can be found at Surfas in Culver City and Village Gourmet in Studio City. Not sure where else. Yoghurt - mmmmmmmmmmmm.
sarah says:
August 6th, 2005 at 3:42 pm
this is how sick i am…
i just ate about a half cup of tzatziki…
with a spoon!
so naughty, but so damn good. LOL!
MaxMillion says:
August 7th, 2005 at 7:56 pm
How else should you eat it?!
Dammit — yoghurt is *really good* for you!
Enjoy!