Jen's Tzatziki

This is just a quick instructional blog for how I put together my tzatziki.  I'm the sauce queen in this house and Brownie is in love with this.

First let me say that the measurements below are approximate - which is why I took pictures of my ingredients in my hands below so you could see about how much I actually used :-) Do what tastes good to you!




Ingredients:

• 1 medium cucumber
• 1 Pint or so of plain Greek yogurt (I used 3 tubs of what is pictured, which gave me a bit more than a pint)
• 4-5 cloves fresh garlic
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 2 Tablespoons finely chopped red onion
• 1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 TeaspoonSalt
• a few grinds of fresh ground Pepper
• 1 Tablespoon Lemon juice (I used lime) 

Directions:

• Remove seeds from cucumber by slicing length-wise and using a spoon to scrape out the center until the seeds are gone.
• Grate cucumber (with peel on) into a colander and sprinkle with salt, toss, sprinkle a bit more salt
• Let cucumber sit for 5 minutes in a clean sink to drain
• Using your hands, squeeze the cucumber to remove as much excess water as you can.  You can see in the pictures to the right how much it reduces in size, but this will keep your tzatziki from being watery and separating.
•  Place drained cucumber in a mixing bowl and add all other ingredients and mix together!
• Let sauce sit in the refrigerator for an hour or two before serving to let the flavors mingle. Taste before serving and adjust garlic, salt and pepper to your liking.

This is amazing with anything, really.  Dipping fresh vegetables especially!  I used this spread on my Rosemary Chicken Salad Pitas and we are plotting a Gyro experiment with it as well :-)  Enjoy!

Garden Veggies over Rice

Brownie likes to create beautiful food and play with flavors.  I tend to be more practical and rely on the foods I grew up eating.  I have a deep love for zucchini and this week, we had THREE zucchini ripen in the garden.  Two yellow and one green.  We also had two beautiful tomatoes ready to eat.  So tonight, I took over dinner duty.  

Now, when I cook, you can bet it's going to be something simple.  Every time my mother and I went to a potluck of any kind, my vegetarian mother would bring this dish with us and people would absolutely devour it.  It was one of the first things she taught me to cook as a teenager.  I still love it.

So in the spirit of sharing actual recipes, I will write down what I used and how I put this together.

Ingredients:

• 3 Medium Zucchini (or a mix of zucchini and yellow squash)
• 1 Large Scallion (Or onion, whatever is on hand)
• 3 Medium-to-large Tomatoes
• Basil (dried or fresh - either way)
• Garlic
• Salt
• Olive Oil
• Cooked Rice

Direcitons:

• I cook rice ahead of time and when my rice cooker beeps, I start the veggies and let the rice warm.
• Heat olive oil in a saute pan and begin cooking Scallion and freshly minced garlic - whatever your tastes are!  I use a LOT of garlic, we love the flavor.
• Chop Zucchini to desired size and put in the pan with garlic and scallion.
• Toss and add salt to taste
• Chop fresh basil and tomatoes while you're waiting for the zucchini to soften.
• Stir your zucchini or toss it in the pan every so often - don't neglect it or it will cook unevenly.
• If you're using dried basil, add it at this point so it has time to re-hydrate
• When they start to soften, I throw in the fresh basil and toss with veggies.
• When they're the texture you prefer, turn the heat off and stir in your chopped tomatoes so they can warm with everything else.  You don't want to COOK the tomatoes, just warm them.
• Scoop some rice into a bowl and add veggies on top!

You'll notice your veggies are a bit watery in the bottom of the pan - that juicy goodness is DIVINE scooped over your rice!  I love to eat this all stirred together in a big mashy mess - it's perfection!

This time around, I decided to use some of our freshly harvested Nasturtium leaves as well.  They have a peppery, radish-y flavor that I wanted to play with.  I didn't really use enough to flavor much, but when I got some in a bite, I could definitely tell they were there and they were a nice addition.  Not always available, but if you want to try them ... it does work with this recipe pretty well.

Enjoy the summer veggies while they last!  As usual, if you try this and put your own spin on it, we'd love to see what you come up with!  Come back and post pictures for us! :-)