Skordalia help.

Hello!

I'm hoping that I can plea for some help or even a recipe. My husband and I both enjoy skordalia and I was thinking about trying to make it at home. Tonight I started looking up recipes and I have no idea where to begin. I've noticed that some recipes call for bread, others don't and I'm wondering how big of a difference it makes in a recipe?

Some of the other recipes call for red wine vinegar, or just white vinegar, and then others don't call for any vinegar.

What I'm looking for is some help, guidance and a good direction to start heading in so I don't embarass myself when attempting this.

Any thoughts, suggestions or tips would be gladly accepted.

With thanks!

Searching this site for Skordalia reveals this thread on garlic, search down the page for links to recipes.

I've never used red wine vinegar -- it would color the dip.

Varieties that use potatoes seem to be a little denser. You really need to whip the heck out of it with a mixer, or it's like shovelling whole garlic cloves in your mouth -- not that there's anything wrong with that.

Some recipes, including the one with potatoes listed, use almonds or almond meal -- I like the added nuttiness.

Use a good firm bread, and remove the crusts, or again you'll darken the dip. Now if you don't mind the darkening... use the crusts, and toast the almonds.

JoelF wrote:Searching this site for Skordalia reveals this thread on garlic, search down the page for links to recipes.

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=60481#60481

LAZ, thanks, I can never get the hang of linking to individual posts.

But then again, sometimes it's nice to have the "Brittanica principle" work for you, where you find something interesting on the way to finding what you want.

Thanks to you both for the suggestions and information.

I have a microplane that I purchased a few weeks ago and haven't used it yet and I think this would be a good opportunity to test it out. Time given I'll make my first attempt at this tomorrow!

Erzsi wrote:I've noticed that some recipes call for bread, others don't and I'm wondering how big of a difference it makes in a recipe? Some of the other recipes call for red wine vinegar, or just white vinegar, and then others don't call for any vinegar. What I'm looking for is some help, guidance and a good direction to start heading in so I don't embarass myself when attempting this. Any thoughts, suggestions or tips would be gladly accepted.

Hmmm, I thought we might get treated to a lengthy essay on the subject. Maybe it is yet to come. Meanwhile, since I've begun reading a bit about Greek food in the last few months, let me offer this novice's version.

As you point out there are many varieties of skordalia (and related sauces). If you want to explore in more depth, and understand the patterns of regional variations, I doubt you can do much better (at least in English) than The Glorious Foods of Greece by Diane Kochilas. This truly excellent cookbook, with a heavy emphasis on rustic regional cooking, has several recipes for skordalia with a good deal of background information. I wish there were more cookbooks like this. It seems to me an essential resource for those interested in Greek cuisine.

Skordalia is a subset of the emulsified garlic sauces that include aioli (emulsified with egg) common in the western Mediterranean and the walnut-based sauces from around the Black Sea (e.g., satsivi from Georgia). Greece, being somewhat in the middle, has a fascinating variety of garlic sauces showing influences from many neighbors. I’m sure entire books could be written on this topic.

Cephalonia, largest of the Ionian Islands, is known for its skordalia, there called aliatha (c.f., aioli, allioli). This version is always made with potatoes. The recipe presented by Kochilas calls for potato, garlic, salt, lemon juice, fish broth, and olive oil.

A Corfiot version (Corfu is the large island off the northwest coast), ayiatha, is made with garlic, bread, salt, chopped almonds, olive oil, and red wine vinegar (giving it a gray-pink color).

One skordalia from Rhodes, in the Dodecanese, is a thin version, emulsified only with flour. Besides garlic and flour it has salt, oil, water, and lemon juice.

In Macedonia, toward the northeast, walnuts make their appearance. Makedonitiki skordalia contains garlic, salt, walnuts, bread, olive oil, and red wine vinegar.

It's been a while since I made any sort of skordalia but with this great book in hand I can see many batches in my future.

Thank you so much Rene for your reply.

I think that I will order that book through interlibrary loan this week and give it a good going through. I had noticed that in some recipes I found online it would note that certain additions are from the style of a certain region. I love cook book reccomendations and I'm going to give this a shot.

I did manage to prepare a very basic version this weekend but to my dismay it was a bit too thick. I don't think that I thinned it out enough when I was blending it. I'll have to give it another shot over the upcoming weekend and hope I do a bit better.