In recent days, the weather around these parts has turned hot. Unexpectedly, unseasonably, thighs-sticking-to-vinyl hot. On the upside, I always did hate the seasons, preferring instead to reside year ‘round in a sweltering porridge. So thank you Texas for letting me live that dream. Screw you, temperate, breezy, Spring.
There are a couple of things, however, that have been raising my humor. One is Mediterranean food. Specifically, Greek eats. It’s perfect for hot weather.
I love to cook it. It’s different, it’s simple, and most importantly it has lots of highly dippable components. There’s just something that appeals to me about assembling multiple, spreadable, scoopable, tasty bits in an endless array of choose-your-own-adventure culinary experiments.
Also, I’m a hands on kind of eater. The less utensils the better. A piece of pita or a hunk of bread and I’m good to go for hours. Sometimes literally.
The other thing that has been distracting me from the less than ideal meteorological conditions is my sweet, sweet new camera; the Canon 30D.
Yes, sadly my last faithful Canon crapped out on me a few weeks ago. Since some sort of photographic device is essential for my current job as a location scout, a new toy- er, tool was in order.
“Mr. Pants, couldn’t you have gotten something less expensive? Couldn’t you have saved a few hundred bucks and settled on a perfectly serviceable replacement that isn’t so incredibly badass and awesome?”
“Why did you have to purchase such an amazing piece of pictural technology, what with its 8.2 megapixel CMOS sensor and DIGIC II Image Processor and enhanced operational features like a new 2.5 inch LCD monitor, true spot metering, and a redesigned shutter mechanism, all in a sturdy, magnesium-clad body? Why Mr. Pants, why?”
Well I’ll tell you. I thought it was pretty. And shiny. So there.
Now back to the food. The first lipsmackable treat was some fava that we brought back from our travels to Santorini. Not to be confused with fava beans, these are actually tiny yellow lentils indigenous to the Cycladic Isles (insert pull-down map with accompanying pointer smack, here).
You basically boil them to a mush with some red onion and garlic and then finish it with some red wine vinegar, olive oil and oregano. Liberties can be taken of course, but the end product is similar to a light hummus.
Next in the line-up is melitzanosalata, Pants style. Melitzanosalata is like a Greek baba ghanoush. I’m sure there’s some sort of accepted recipe to make the stuff, but I didn’t have the time or the patience, so I just whipped up some all freestyle like. Or as I prefer to call it, deliciously.
First I roasted off a couple of eggplants. I let them cool a little and then scooped out the flesh into the old food processor. I tossed in some tomato, mint, dill, garlic paste (don’t buy it –smash it yourself with salt), lemon juice, peanut butter, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce for that certain umami edge. Then I gave the whole mess a quick, rough puree. That’s good eatin’.
As a mandatory condiment, I whipped up a little (possibly a lot. Ok, a huge amount of) tzatziki, the classic cucumber yogurt sauce. The key to tzatziki, besides spelling it, is making sure that it’s not runny. There’s a lot of moisture in the ingredients, so if you’re not careful you’ll end up with a soup instead of a dip.
This is the thing you should probably start first, as moisture purging and draining can take a while. I highly recommend using Fage Greek style yogurt for the base, as it rules and totally dominates all other yogurts readily available in the US. If you can’t get Fage, which is particularly viscous, you should drain your yogurt for a few hours in a cheesecloth or paper towel lined sieve.
So, yogurt choice aside, get a cucumber and grate it. Sprinkle it with a little salt and let it sit for awhile. Squeeze it in a cheesecloth or paper towel. Make sure it’s very dry. Good.
Now throw it in with the yogurt. Add about a teaspoon of that homestyle garlic paste, a teaspoon or so of lemon juice, a bit of finely chopped dill and mint (easy on the mint), and a wee drizzle of olive oil with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir. Taste. Add more of whatever’s lacking, then stick it in the fridge to chill out and marinate for an even more delicious result.
Now, on to the oft maligned Greek Salad. In Greece, I’m convinced that they serve it forcibly to every tourist just so they don’t have to listen to an endless stream of foreigners, ignorant of any actual culinary traditions of the region, loudly demanding the one thing that they know is supposed to be Greek. Regardless, it’s good.
My take is a simple mix of kalamata olives, sliced cucumber, cherry tomatoes, pepperoncini, red onion and feta tossed with some really good olive oil and maybe a little thyme or oregano. Simple, crisp, vegetably goodness.
Finally, I supplemented the homemade stuff (because we really needed some more food) with a fantastic product named The Peppetizer. Regardless of the bizarrely ridiculous name, this roasted red pepper and eggplant relish is really quite scrumptious. It brings a nice tangy smack to the mix.
The final piece to this graze fest is the beverage. My personal vote is for retsina. This traditional Greek wine is flavored with pine resin. After many initial reservations/visions of licking bow strings/bowling flashbacks, it has proven to be quite addictive.
It may or may not have been responsible for a particularly vexing case of the hangovers. Which may or may not have been directly tied to me poaching multiple times from Mme. Pants' glass. Ahem.
I think that about wraps it up. Let’ see – bitching about the weather… rocking new camera… luscious dining experience…
Yep.
-L. Pants
