tzatziki

Recently I was craving some sort of vegetable-y flatbread sandwich, but I didn't know what kind of sauce to use. I browsed the dressing aisle, but nothing did it for me. Well, I knew what I wanted – I wanted the tzatziki sauce I had at Pita Pit this summer, but since I had no way to get it... I looked up tzatziki recipes online. When I look for new recipes, I always look at a bunch and then decide which one sounds easiest/best mix of flavors for my taste buds, and I often end up combining a few. Such is the case with the tzatziki sauce I made. My chosen ingredients (um, quantities are going to have to be from memory because I guess I didn't bring the written-out recipe with me like I thought):














16 oz plain yogurt, strained; 1 T lemon juice; 1 T minced garlic; 1 T olive oil; 1 t red wine vinegar; 1/2 cucumber, peeled, grated and strained; 1 1/2 t fresh mint, minced; 1/4 c sour cream; pinch of black pepper; 1 t salt (I think this is too much; the sauce tastes salty, I think, but it's less noticeable once it's on a sandwich. Still, I would reduce the salt next time.)

The first step I found very interesting – straining the yogurt. Recipes I read varied on how long to strain the yogurt, anywhere from 1 hour to 24 hours. For good measure, I strained it about 22 hours. Methods I read included using cheese cloth, a paper towel or a coffee filter; I selected coffee filter.
















I was surprised at just how much liquid strained out of the yogurt.


















We don't really have the refrigerator space to have a lot of things straining at once, plus our other colanders are huge, so for the cucumber, Brian helped me out and peeled and grated it and then just pressed out as much liquid as he could with paper towels right before I added it. That worked pretty well, and the sauce is not runny.

My favorite part was mincing the mint. For this, I broke out the Alaskan Ulu. This is Brian's Ulu and bowl. I've had an Ulu since my visit to Alaska 12 years ago but have never actually used one. And I don't have the bowl to go along with mine. This. Mincing the mint. Was fun.

















Then all you do is mix everything together and let it sit for a while to allow all of the flavors to blend. It was pretty good, but not how I remember the Pita Pit tzatziki. Also, it makes an f-load (a measurement that equals "I'll never be able to finish it"), so if anyone wants some...















I eat it on top of sautéed vegetables in flatbread.













Mmm, vegetables.














And just because, here are the Rice Krispies treats we made with the new Kraft Jet Puffed Strawberry Marshmallows (tried to get you a link here, but Kraft has a crappy website as far as I could tell). We'd also like to try making treats with the chocolate flavor.