Showing posts with label no cook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label no cook. Show all posts

Monday, August 18, 2008

Tzatziki and Pita

From Ina Garten

Ingredients:
4 cups plain yogurt, whole milk or low-fat
2 hothouse cucumbers, unpeeled and seeded
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic (2 cloves)
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Directions:
Place the yogurt in a cheesecloth-lined sieve and set it over a bowl. Grate the cucumber and toss it with 2 tablespoons salt; place it in another sieve and set it over another bowl. Place both bowls in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours so the yogurt and cucumber can drain.

Transfer the thickened yogurt to a large bowl. Squeeze as much liquid from the cucumbers as you can, and add the cucumbers to the yogurt. Mix in the sour cream, vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, dill, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper. You can serve it immediately, but I prefer to allow the tzatziki to sit in the refrigerator for a few hours for the flavors to blend.

Personal Note: Made this for the Sunday afternoon board game party at Mosh and Jolly's. I cheated because I was super short on time though--I just used high quality true Greek yogurt and hoped it'd be dense/thick and flavorful enough without so much time straining. It probably is worth the extra time, and one day I'll try to do it properly all the way through and compare results. But people enjoyed it, even the food snobs at the gathering. So! ...Ina never steers me wrong.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Black Bean Salad

Black Bean Salad

3 cans black beans, drained and rinsed thoroughly but gently
1 can Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed thoroughly but gently
1 can yellow corn, drained
A few scallions (both the white and green), sliced
1 medium to large yellow/cooking onion, chopped
1 or 2 chiles (jalapenos), minced
2 small cucumbers, cubed
A bit of oil (so the astringent juice "binds" to the ingredients. I use canola/vegetable, but olive oil etc. might work)
1/2 lime's juice or to taste
Vinegar (your choice; I like red wine/sherry vinegar or rice wine vinegar) to taste

Put all ingredients in a nonreactive container and mix, adjust flavors. Cover and chill.

Personal Note: Cribbed from my dad and basically ad-libbed. This is great for really scalding days when you can't comprehend cooking or even eating hot dishes. All it takes is opening cans, chopping stuff up, dousing the whole thing in some juice and vinegar, tossing, and throwing in the fridge to chill. It gets better over time too. Also, it's got tons of protein and fiber, but doesn't lack flavor. I find it can be tasty with tomatoes, but they get mushy quickly so it's best to chop some up at the last minute per meal (this makes enough to last for days as a snack, side, and/or main meal component). Oh, and obviously other stuff can go in here! It's a very "whatever you want, and the kitchen sink"-type "recipe." Yum.