We spent President’s Day weekend in Washington, D.C. visiting a long lost relative and some friends. After a spring like day sight seeing, we were looking for a fun yet sophisticated place for dinner. Unlike most of our road trips, we arrived in D.C. with no culinary plans and were extremely happy to find that we could squeeze in Jose Andres’ Zaytinya without a reservation.
The food and atmosphere were fantastic. Most impressive was the staff who were nothing but pleasant each and every step through this restaurant from the host to bartender to server. We enjoyed a carafe of Pom Fili which is a combination of white wine, vodka and pomegranate and ate the most amazing Tzatziki, Taramosalata, Patates Tiganites Me Yiaourti, Adana Kebabs and other treasures I have since forgotten due to the carafe of Pom Fili!
When we got home we were quite inspired to try to make our own Tzatziki which my husband remembers eating as a child on holiday in Greece. It was simple and so yummy.
We began by assembling Greek yogurt, diced and seeded cucumber, chopped dill, roasted garlic, lemon and olive oil.
The cucumber needs to strain a bit so I rested it in paper towel to begin with to rid it of some of the water it was retaining. We were using Greek yogurt so it was not very runny and did not need to strain. In our food processor we put the cucumber, dill, garlic and lemon and pulsed it to a coarse consistency. We stirred in the yogurt and a drizzle of olive oil and voila! We were done. We let this rest over night so all the flavors would meld together. Our was served simply with toasted pita for lunch.
If you would like to read more about Jose Andres, you should check out Gweneth Paltrow’s Blog, GOOP, for her latest entry on cooking with Jose Andres. We thought it was quite the coincidence when we arrived home to find our GOOP newsletter posting this as the first entry!
http://goop.com/newsletter/167/en
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