Things You'll Need:
- 1 large hot house (ie seedless english) cucumber - or two regular ones.
- sea salt (or Kosher salt)
- 1 and 1/4 cup of strained yogurt
- Kalamata Olive Oil (or good quality extra vrigin if you cant)
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- ground white pepper
- 2 to 5 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup of fresh mint leaves (finely chopped)
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Step 1
First - you have to strain the yogurt to get out most of the water. In order to end up with about 1 and 1/4 cups, I buy one of those 32 oz containers. Take a sieve (like a pasta stainer, collander, etc) and line it with a couple of layers of cheese cloth if you have that -- you probably dont, so line it with some paper towels - and then put it over a big bowl so that the bottom of the sieve is at least a couple of inches above the bottom of the bowl. Then put all 32 oz of the yogurt in the sieve and leave it in a cool place for 3 hours - not in the fridge (it will just firm up in there). When your done with this - you should have a lot of whey (cloudy water) in the bowl - and the remaining yogurt will be really thick. Throw out the whey (unless you want to drink it - but that's not my scene) and you can now put the strained yogurt in the fridge untl you need it (it will kepp about a week)
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Step 2
While the yogurt's straining, you also want to get alot of the water out of the cucumbers. So peel those - then cut them in half lengthwise - and take a spoon and scoop out and throw away all the seeds and mushy stuff from the center - so you are left with just the crunchy outside part. Then take crunchy part and either julienne it (ie - cut it into matchstick sized pieces) or dice it if you like the cucumber chunkier. Put those in another strainer/collander and spinkle with about half a teaspoon of sea salt (or a little more if useing kosher salt). Stir it around so the salt is distributed on the cucumber and let that drain for one hour. The salt will pull out a lot of water and alot of the bitterness from the cucumber.
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Step 3
In a large bowl, combine the strained yogurt, approx 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, the 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, the finely chopped garlic.
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Step 4
Once the cucumbers are done straining - take them out and gently press them between two paper towls to get out even more liquid - then add them to the yogurt mixture.
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Step 5
Add the chopped mint leaves
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Step 6
Finally - if you want -- add a little salt, white pepper and/or more lemon juice - to your own personal taste.
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Step 7
I usually get to that point - stir it around real well - and cover and put back into the fridge for an hour or so -- the flavors will combine with some time in the fridge and it is just killer. If you cant wait, its ready to go as soon as you are done above - but the waiting is worth it if you can.
Comments
art2cee2 said
on 8/2/2009 Nice recipe and I am a greek so that is a compliment. Most stores do sell plain greek yogurt now which is the thick consistancy so if you have that you can skip the straining step. Thanks 5*