Skorthalia
The cuisines of the Mediterranean have an almost universal fondness for spiced pastes used as bread and vegetable dips. We’ve already introduced you to a number of these, including bissara, hummus, laban, muhammara and tarator. Skorthalia is yet another. Of Greek origin it revels in the heady flavors of raw garlic. While there are numerous recipes that use mashed potatoes, we’re not fond of them as they are only a recent development since potatoes were unknown in Europe until after contact with the New World. And, if we want to eat garlic mashed potatoes we’d make them instead. The simplest Greek taverna versions use only bread crumbs, and while we like this well enough we favor slightly richer versions that also include ground almonds, as suggested by Susie Jacobs in her 1995 Recipes from a Greek Island (ISBN 978-1850298038). The recipe as presented below is perfect as a dip. If you’d like to try this as a filling for home-made tortellini or in lasagna you will probably want to stiffen it by doubling the amount of ground almonds and bread crumbs. 1 head garlic, separated into cloves Remove the clove wrappers from the garlic and coarsely chop. Place into a mortar, add the salt and grind with the pestle into a smooth paste. Beat in the olive oil in tablespoon quantities, waiting to add in more until all has been absorbed. When the emulsion has a mayonnaise-like consistency and the olive oil begins to not be absorbed, mix in the almond flour and soaked bread crumbs. The emulsion will break but that is not a problem. Beat lemon juice into the mixture, which will turn whitish and will help the emulsion reform. Adjust salt to taste. Let sit at least an hour (or even better over night) before serving. Archive |
 |
 |
 |