Mythology: Tzatziki

"Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth." -Homer, The Iliad

Paleo triple-berry sorbet!

For my contribution to the theme of Mythology, I chose to make a cucumber-yogurt dip called tzatziki. I had never even heard of it until we went to Romania, where we had it quite often on schnitzel and later on shaorma. Tzatziki is one of those things that you make and then think, "Now what?" And since it's a versatile sauce, that question is fairly easily answered. In Romania we had it on meat and sandwiches, here we dipped vegetables in the flavorful sauce. Also, I made a few alterations to the original recipe so it was extremely light and sour and a little more modern than your general serving of this Greek favorite. Below is the recipe as I made it--next time I would replace the lime juice with lemon, and add some fresh dill-weed:

Tzatziki (cucumber-yogurt) Sauce

and do forgive the poor image quality. this was done with my tablet-camera

what you'll likely need:

2 large cucumbers, peeled and seeded

2 cups Greek yogurt

3 Tbs. olive oil

Juice and zest of one lime

1 Tbs. minced garlic

salt & pepper to taste

1.) Grate your cucumbers and mix in medium-size bowl with yogurt and olive oil.

2.) Zest and squeeze lime and add with remaining spices to the cucumber-yogurt mixture

3.) Cover and chill in fridge until ready to use. Serve on pita-sandwiches or with fresh cut veggies.

In a fortuitous turn of events, we also had a lot of unused goat's milk in the fridge so I tried my hand at making homemade feta cheese. It wasn't until much later that I realized that too will fit into this week's theme, since feta cheese is an essential part of Mediterranean cuisine! The cheese requires salt-curing for 4-5 days so I won't be able to taste it and tell you how it turned out till next week. However, so far it looks perfectly edible! I also was set the task of pickling our overabundance of cucumbers--one of my favorite summer jobs. The results are, according to Daniel and one of his colleagues, "Unbelievable." Let us hope this is true, and not just a recommendation from starving bachelors. ;)

The tzatziki was fresh, delicious, and something we'll definitely make again! I'm hoping to use the rest in sandwiches or on a salad with the feta cheese next week--in the fridge I'm positive it will last that long. So now I'm wondering, what did you make? Don't forget to link up in the post below! I can't wait to look at all of the recipes you submit. :)