Cacik (or Tzatziki)
Region: Turkey
Category: Basic Recipes and Sauces
Season: Any
Difficulty: Easy
Cacık (pronounced JAjuk) is so common throughout Turkey that it becomes a comforting sight, a relish for virtually any prepared food, especially good with kebabs and köfte (grilled meatballs), although many Turks actually eat it alone as a meze. In the Anatolian town of Bursa, men like to blow bubbles into the cacık with a straw to make it frothy, in identical fashion to what American parents admonish their children not to do with their milk. The Turkish cacık is called tzatziki in Greece.
Yield: Makes 3 cups
Preparation Time: 1:30 hours
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, and grated
Salt to taste
3 garlic cloves, peeled and mashed
2 cups thick high-quality full-fat plain yogurt (see Note)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
3/4 teaspoon dried mint
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1. Toss the grated cucumber with a light sprinkling of salt. Leave for 30 minutes. Drain the cucumber, squeezing out all the liquid.
2. Pound the garlic in a mortar with 1 teaspoon salt until completely mashed. Stir the garlic into the yogurt and beat with a fork until smooth. Stir in the cucumber, dill, mint, and olive oil and stir until the consistency of a thick soup. Refrigerate for 1 hour and serve cold.
Note:
If the yogurt you usually buy is not thick, stir
some labna into it (strained yogurt).
Posted: 08/07/2008
