Τζατζικι

Picture unrelated. It's just one of my favorites from our vacation photos.

Tzatziki! We eat a fair bit of this at home: with carrots, with crackers, as salad dressing when I'm too lazy to make some, as a side with grilled meats, with pita. When we were on vacation, M and I ate surprisingly little. Tzatziki in Crete was different from what we're used to buying at Trader Joe's, or getting at most of the chain Greek places. It was a bit thicker, much tangy-er, and all around tasty.

This first thing I tried making when we got home, and it's not perfect, but it's close. All the ingredients came from Trader Joe's, or my fridge, so it's not particularly esoteric, either. It is very much a to-taste food, so adjust the dill and cucumber and lemon as you see fit.

Τζατζικι
250 g Greek style strained yogurt (I used ΦΑΓΕ, readily available at TJ's)
1/3 of a large cucumber, grated and drained
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1/8 c olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Fresh dill, chopped
Salt & pepper

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I scaled this down from a recipe that called for 1kg yogurt and a whole bunch of fresh dill, which I think may feed an army -- or maybe the entire Ness clan. The recipe in our Cretan Cookery book also doesn't call for lemon, but the τζατζίκι we had in Crete was more sour than what I had before I added it in. And Katie always tells us to add more lemon to things, anyway, so I figured that was what was missing.