Tzatziki is a tasty Greek mix of garlic, yoghurt, and cucumber, with added lemon, dill and mint to taste. It can be quite elaborate, yet I think the essence of it's robust country character can be captured quite reasonably using more simple tactics. And if we keep the quantities loose we can also capture the slight uncertainty from batch to batch of the best country fare. It's especially useful around January / February when apple cucumbers can be a bit of an embarrassment in the garden and you want to use up a few.
You will need a stainless steel or plastic colander or seive, a clean teatowel and a large bowl, and some room in the fridge.
250-300 mls plain unsweetened yoghurt. Greek style is fine but not necessary. Just NOT SWEETENED
2-4 apple cucumbers, grated or chopped. Take the seeds out first if you're fussy
Juice from 1 lemon, or half a teaspoon of citric acid if next door's kids have been raiding your tree for lemonade.
1 generous teaspoon garlic paste or chopped garlic, more or less according to taste. Remember this is not going to be cooked, so the raw garlic will be coming on strong.
1 tablespoon Olive Oil.
1 teaspoon Salt
3/4 teaspoon fresh ground Black Pepper. (Adjust these amounts upwards if necessary before serving)
1 - 2 tablespoons chopped basil. I was short the traditional dill and mint, and I reckoned that basil tends to combine these flavours to some extent. Tasted fine anyhow.
(You may wish to experiment with chopped celery instead of/as well as cucumber. You can also add, say, a quarter teaspoon of bruised caraway seed to the mix for a variation.)
Combine all of these in a bowl and apply the hand blender until well mixed and just a trifle lumpy.
Place the colander in a large stainless steel or plastic bowl and line with the teatowel - or cheesecloth if you happen to keep that kind of thing handy.
Pour the blended mix into the colander, cover and place in the fridge overnight to drain off excess water from the cucumber and yoghurt. Next morning the mix will be about the consistency of slightly sloppy cottage cheese and will taste just great. Carefully remove it from the tea towel and store in a non-metallic bowl in the fridge, covered in plastic seal.
If you are feeling invulnerable, pile some on a piece of toast for breakfast and head off to work smelling just like the Paris Underground. Otherwise, reserve it for snacking on after work with crackers and a decent glass of white wine.
You can either toss the excess water/"buttermilk", or save it to be the base for say, a marinade for the barbecue, or whatever you like. Grate a little root ginger into it, and whatever else occurs to you, and soak your pork pieces for an hour or two before barbecuing them on the blacktop.
