There’s more than one way to make tzatziki!
Here we are..tucked into a lively, chattering Greek community…an abundance of fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs with which to experiment, local wine to sample plus old and new friends to help us enjoy an evening in the cockpit now and again.
Simple! We made a plan..we’d make some delicious tzatziki, using Greek yogourt from the supermarket, cucumbers from the street market and garlic brought from Malta. Crackers from Lidl’s, recently discovered in a locker, and local wine in the plastic bottles from Michaelis across the street would be the obvious choices to compliment a relaxed gathering.
A ’round the harbour reckie’ trouved an excellent multi-national book shop from whom we purchased a minimal, though seemingly excellent Greek cookery book. Just to be sure that our new exploration of local cuisine would be authentic we gladly made this purchase.
Back at the boat Kate meticulously followed the recipe. Grated, pressed and drained the cucumber, crushed the garlic, added the olive oil, mixed in the yogourt. On NO! Upon this seeming well victualled vessel no vinegar could be found. Thank you Lord for lemons…the juice of which, we were sure would add sparkle to the mix and be a reasonable substitute and Simon pronounced it a success.
At much past the unappointedly Greek hour we were to be found, with local Mama, Babu, delightful kids and a seasoned old friend joining us for wine and a tzatziki presentation….dipped onto…..the well travelled Lidl’s crackers. Well we hadn’t actually anticipated the critiquing aspect of this gathering but…with hindsight how else could it have been.
The tzatziki was fine except it lacked parsley.
It was superb, though there was insufficient garlic.
The consistency was good but would have been excellent if the full fat yogourt had been used instead of the ‘healthy option lower fat’
The acidity was all wrong….of course! No vinegar.
The crackers passed without comment.
Well, we had a great evening anyway, laughing and chatting about our differences.
Two days later an endearing new Greek friend took me to her kitchen and taught me how to make the ‘real ‘ Greek tzatziki
Parsley….never! It’s Dill which gives the true flavour.
Of course!!
We are loving our new Greek friends and the privilege of sharing moments like this together….and there is, of course, more than one way to do everything.