Add on top of that dinner plans with my beautiful sister, who studied abroad in Greece a couple summers ago, and our mutual love for anything that includes vegetables and feta...and I knew I'd have to rise to the challenge of making some Greek food of my own.
But where to start? My sister is basically vegetarian, I don't care for lamb (one of the few meats in this world that I just don't like at all, but happens to be all over Greek menus)...but I had a meal to prepare. Then, the proverbial lightbulb. Start with an appetizer - duh!
My favorite appetizer from the Greek Islands restaurant in Chicago's Greektown is this garlicky, olive-oily spread that the serve alongside some fresh roasted beets. As a lover of all things garlic, this is seriously my version of heaven on a spreader. So I sought out a recipe to make it at home...
And alas, thanks to Saveur magazine...Pantzaria me Skordalia (roasted beets with garlic-potato spread). I tweaked it slightly (more garlic, please!) and substituted some ingredients for ones that I had on-hand. And I halved the recipe...which still resulted in a pretty large amount (considering it's so garlicky, even master-garlic-consumers can only use a little at a time).
Ingredients
3-4 large fresh beets
1/4 cup blanched almonds
6-8 garlic cloves, smashed
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 Yukon gold potato
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. You'll want to start the beets in the oven first, since they take awhile. You can prepare the spread while they're roasting.
2. Cut off the beet root and leaves and rinse under cold water to remove any excess crud.
3. Place the beets in a small baking dish. Drizzle them with olive oil, and sprinkle with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Pour about 1/2 cup of water into the dish around the beets.
4. Cover tightly with foil and roast for one hour.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the spread. Skin your potato and place it in a medium saucepan filled with generously-salted cold water. Bring to a boil and cook until fork-tender.
6. Remove to a strainer and set aside to let cool.
7. Blanch your almonds (check out this recipe for instructions). And smash your garlic cloves.
8. Place the blanched almonds in a food processor, along with the smashed garlic cloves, white wine vinegar and 1 tbsp. olive oil. Pulse until it becomes almost a paste. If you have a few chunks, it's okay.
9. Place the cooled potatoes in a medium mixing bowl and mash with a fork. Add the garlic mixture and incorporate, continuing to mash with a fork. Add salt and pepper, then 10 tbsp. of olive oil.
10. Mix quickly with a fork or spatula until well-combined.
11. Once your beets have been in the oven for an hour, remove them and uncover. Set aside for 30 minutes to cool.
12. Once they're cooled enough to handle, you can peel the skin right off the beet. It should slide right off - and don't press too hard, or you'll dent your beautiful red babies!
13. Now, slice 'em up. I quartered each beet and then sliced each quarter in half...so I guess I actually eighth'd the beets...urm, is that word?
14. Spread a little garlicky goodness on each beet slice and enjoy...I mean it...seriously...enjoy the heck out of this. It's so good.
Ingredients
3-4 large fresh beets
1/4 cup blanched almonds
6-8 garlic cloves
1 Yukon gold potato
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Directions
To prepare the beets:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Trim the root end and the leaves off of the fresh beets and discard. Place the beets in a small roasting dish.
3. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with a generous amount of salt and pepper.
4. Add a 1/4" water into the pan, and cover it tightly with aluminum foil.
5. Roast for 1 hour, or until a knife slides easily into the center of the beets.
To prepare the garlic-potato spread:
6. As the beets roast away, skin and dice the potato into one-inch cubes.
7. Place in a small pot of salted water, and bring to a boil. Boil the potatoes until they are fork-tender.
8. Blanch the almonds. Take a look at this recipe to learn how.
9. In a food processor, combine the almonds, vinegar and garlic. Add enough olive oil to create a paste.
10. Drain the potatoes and place in a large mixing bowl.
11. Add the garlic mixture to the potatoes, combining well with a fork and adding olive oil until desired consistency (approximately 10 tbsp).
12. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
13. Once the beets have roasted, remove them from the oven and let them stand (still covered) for 30 minutes or until cool enough to handle.
14. The skin of the beets should peel right off.
15. Once the beets are peeled, slice them into eighths and serve alongside garlic spread.
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