Recipe Request: Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

The Enright CSA blog received a request at Saturday morning pickup for more cucumber recipes—specifically, a recipe for cucumber sauce. My first thought was of Greek cucumber sauce, the stuff you dribble on top of the tomatoes and onions on your gyro at Sebastian’s. I couldn’t remember the name of the sauce, but have since done a little research and found it is called Tzatziki sauce.

However, the requestor, farmer Dave (Rudy) Rudemiller, was thinking of Indian cucumber sauce. Ah, yes—forgot about that, it’s always on the lunch buffet at Amol Indian restaurant. And, a little more research unearthed the fact that it is called raita sauce.

Here’s the most intriguing part—it’s essentially the same sauce. Both are made with yogurt and cucumbers in equal amounts, two cups of yogurt and a medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced. (Quick Tip: Cucumbers are easy to seed, just slice one in half longways and scoop out the seeds with a spoon.)

The difference is in the seasoning, obviously. For tzatziki sauce, add a garlic clove, fresh dill or mint, and salt and pepper to taste. For raita sauce, use ground cumin (or half cumin, half coriander), some chopped fresh cilantro, and sprinkle a little chili pepper and ground black pepper over it to garnish. You can also add a little lemon or lime juice to either one.

So, two sauces with one recipe . . . here are the directions with specific information about the amounts for both ethnicities of cucumber yogurt sauce. Both call for Greek yogurt because it is thicker than regular, but you can use regular as is if you don’t mind it being thinner. You can also strain regular plain yogurt through a sieve lined with a coffee filter to make it thicker, but that can take several hours.

Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

For either type:
2 cups Greek yogurt
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 tsp. kosher salt

Put the diced cucumber in a colander, sprinkle with salt, and let stand for 30 minutes to draw out the liquid. Drain well and pat dry with a paper towel.

For Tzatziki Sauce:
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 T finely chopped fresh dill (use mint leaves for a different taste)
Optional: 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

For Raita Sauce:
1 tsp. ground cumin (or ½ tsp. ground cumin and ½ tsp. ground coriander)
1 T chopped fresh coriander
Optional: 1 Tbsp. lime juice
Salt to taste
Chili powder and/or fresh ground pepper to garnish

Add all but about a ¼ cup of the diced cucumbers to the bowl of a food processor with the seasonings and optional lemon or lime juice and process until well blended. Stir this mixture and the reserved diced cucumber into the yogurt, taste, and add salt and pepper as needed. Let the sauce meld in the refrigerator for an hour or two before serving; for the raita sauce, sprinkle with a little chili powder and black pepper before serving.

Keeps in the refrigerator for several days, but you may need to pour off water that forms on top when you use it again.

Up to Our Elbows in Basil, Part 1

This summer's challenge for many in the Enright CSA has been finding creative ways to use the surfeit of basil we've gotten in our shares . . . as many people have said, there's just so much pesto you can eat. Which is kind of funny; pesto is sort of a "gourmet" item, and I remember seeing a one-man show about a guy talking about taking up shoplifting--he only stole high-priced items like--pesto. But reminds me of a story about my grandfather, who once went pheasant hunting and was particularly successful. After awhile, pheasant a la king can get old, too.

Anyway, I've come up with a few things that use basil, but one thing to remember is that EVERYTHING (almost) can use a little basil--pasta or pizza sauce, of course; caprese salad, with tomatoes and fresh mozarella and plenty of basil; roasted chicken or fish or vegetables with plenty of fresh basil; the list goes on. Someone mentioned some delicious lemon basil cookies they had. That's going on my list to try!

I made some Spicy Basil Yogurt Cucumber Dip for a party last week, then added some oil and vinegar to make the leftovers into a salad dressing that is great on lettuce and tomato salads. Below are the general directions, but if you don't have chutney, you can leave it out, and if you don't like curry, try something else--coriander, perhaps, or a little dry mustard, or just more ground pepper.

Spicy Basil Yogurt Cumcumber Dip

1 cucumber, peeled and shredded
2 tsps vegetable oil
1 tsp curry powder
1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
3 Tbsps chutney
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper

Place cucumber in a sieve over a bowl for about 20 minutes to drain the liquid; press down on the solids to get out as much liquid as possible. Then heat the oil in a skillet over a medium-high heat and cook the curry powder until it just begins to bubble, about 45 seconds. Let it cool slightly, then in a bowl, mix together the cucumber, yogurt, chutney, ginger, basil, and curry powder. Mix well and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with pita chips or vegetables. To make salad dressing, whisk oil and vinegar (a little more oil than vinegar) together in a bowl, then add the cumcumber basil yogurt dip and whisk all together to make it the consistency of dressing.