ji@close.cs.columbia.edu (John Ioannidis) (08/27/90)
In article <1990Aug24.220623.13057@mthvax.cs.miami.edu> dartvax!batcomputer!martyne@uunet.UU.NET (Martyne Hallgren) writes: > >I am looking for the recipe for the dressing that is used in Greek Salads. > > Well, here's the *real* thing, also known as "Choriatiki Salata" (villager's salad) Ingredients: - Cucumber. Preferably not the seedy, small cucumbers you find in the US, but the long, smooth-skinned seedless (and much tastier) ones you find in Europe. - Tomatoes. Ripe, tasty ones. Again, not the built-to-bumper-specs ones that are industrially grown. - Onions. Medium-sized light-brown-skinned onions. - Olives; Kalamata olives work best; other black olives will do - Feta cheese. The softer the better. The good stuff is (alas) only found in Greece! - Olive oil. This is the only "dressing". Pure olive oil (not the "lite" variety, of course). - Oregano. The fresher the better. - Salt&Pepper. Preparation: - Peel the cucumbers, and cut them to 1/4'' or so slices. - Remove the "navel" from the tomatoes, and cut them in wedges. - Cut the feta cheese to small cubes, about 1/2'' large. - Peel the onions and cut them. If you don't want them very sharp, soak them in vinegar for ~15 minutes and wash them. - Put the cucumbers and tomatoes in a salad bowl, add the onions, the feta and the olives. Sprinkle oregano and add olive oil liberally. - Add salt and pepper to taste. - Toss just before eating. Notes: - Real greek salad doesn't have lettuce in it (american lettuce is non-existent in Greece. There is Romaine lettuce, but it's not used with tomatoes in salads). The stuff they serve you at diners is a cheap, poor imitation. - There are no fixed proportions, but you normally use an equal mass of cucumbers and tomatoes, enough onions to cover the salad bowl, and enough feta and olives to cover half the bowl. - If your tomatoes are juicy (the way they are supposed to be!) the juice that accumulates at the bottom of the bowl, with the olive oil, the oregano etc. is great with hearth-baked or sourdough bread. - Finally, greek salad is supposed to be eaten along with the meal, not before. /ji In-Real-Life: John "Heldenprogrammer" Ioannidis E-Mail-To: ji@cs.columbia.edu V-Mail-To: +1 212 854 5510 P-Mail-To: 450 Computer Science \n Columbia University \n New York, NY 10027