Tzatziki

Ingredients

• 2 cup Greek yoghurt
• 3 inch Cucumber
• Dill
• 1 clove/teaspoon Garlic
• 1 teaspoon Olive oil
• Lemon, lime or vinegar
• Salt
• Black pepper

Method

Tzatziki lives on the contrast between creamy yoghurt and the sharp bite of acid—get the proportions right and the dip disappears in minutes. The controlling move is removing moisture from the cucumber. Grate it on the fine holes of a box grater (not the microplane; you want fragments, not pulp), then salt it lightly and leave it in a fine-mesh sieve for ten minutes. Press it hard with the back of a spoon or fold it into a clean tea towel and wring it out—this matters. Cucumber is 95% water, and that water will dilute your yoghurt and blunt the acid-in-cooking you're about to add. Stingy with the moisture now means a dip that coats the back of a spoon, not a soup.

Pound the garlic with a pinch of salt in a mortar until it breaks down into a paste—the salt acts as an abrasive and keeps the clove from flying around. Add the olive oil and work it through; this isn't emulsification in the strict sense, but you're distributing the garlic evenly and letting the oil carry its volatile compounds. Fold the strained cucumber and finely chopped dill into the Greek yoghurt, then add the garlic oil. The fresh-herbs|dill should smell green and bright here—if it's been sitting in your drawer for three weeks, start again.

Acid is the backbone. Add lemon juice first (about one teaspoon per 500g yoghurt) and taste. Lime works if you want a sharper edge; vinegar is too thin-bodied for this dip and will make it taste sharp rather than balanced. Season with salt and a grind of black pepper, then taste again. Greek yoghurt is already tart, so you need just enough acid to brighten it, not smother it. If the dip tastes flat after the lemon, you've under-salted. If it tastes sour, you've over-lemon'd.

Finish with a pour of good olive oil across the surface and a scatter of fresh dill if you've got another pinch. Let it sit in the cold for at least thirty minutes—this isn't a rushed cold-preparation. The flavours need time to knit together, and the yoghurt sets slightly as it cools, giving you a better texture for scooping.