A Tzatziki Can Never be Too Thick or Too Rich.

Creamy, refreshing, subtle, and nutritious- ideal for all your summer tables.

A recipe for tzatiki? Of course it's not necessary- just blend grated cucumber with yogurt, add some garlic to taste, and some dill for fragrance and color and, eh... voila! But taking a little care with each step will give you a cool, creamy, subtle and fragrant spread that is more substantial and much, much better than the gyro-shop standard. The keys to an absolutely magnificent tzatziki are less garlic than you would think, more dill than you would think, and a slightly obsessive preparation. It is nothing too taxing- just mashing the garlic into a smooth pulp with salt, mincing the dill so fine that it bleeds a beautiful avocado color into the yogurt, and removing as much moisture from both the grated cucumbers and the already strained yogurt as you possibly can.

We will need:

600 g/ about 2 1/2 C strained yogurt

2 long "seedless" cucumbers

a very large bunch of dill

a garlic clove the size of an almond

salt

olive oil

First, strain the already-strained yogurt- you can line a strainer with cheesecloth or gauze. It's surprising how much liquid will be shed (the whey is healthful and delicious- save it to add it to the cucumber lassi you might make with the cucumber juice below). 

Wash the dill fronds thoroughly, squeeze them dry, and mince them fine. Then mince them again- this will help release their fragrance and color, and ensure there is no coarseness of texture in the finished tzatziki.

Garlic when raw builds in intensity over time. By all means put in as much as you like, but bear in mind that it will grow stronger, and make sure all of it mashed into a silky puree with the side of the blade of a knife- a large pinch of salt helping to break it down:

If a little dill gets mashed in with it, so much the better:

Peel your cucumbers and grate them on the large holes of a box grater. It will seem like quite a lot of grated cucumber. Put it into a fine-mesh strainer and salt it, putting the strainer over a bowl. 

After a short time, it will have shed a lot of liquid. Squeeze it to get out even more. (The beautiful green liquid in the bottom of the bowl is salty but delicious- I have blended it with tomato juice, and also made a cucumber lassi over ice)

In order to ensure the garlic is well distributed, blend it first with a small amount of the strained yogurt and then blend that garlic-scented yogurt with the rest. After this, stir in the squeezed-out grated cucumber and the minced dill. There should be plenty of salt from the cucumbers and the garlic paste, but test once again, and stir in a little olive oil for silkiness. Drizzle some more over the top too, just for the pleasure of the three lovely shades of green.

If there are grilled meats this is always on the table. But in just a few weeks when it is too hot to eat, this makes a very agreeable way to keep from fainting, with a heel of crusty bread and maybe a tomato cut up on a plate and sprinkled with salt.