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Horiatiki
That's Greek Peasant Salad to you and me!
Today, on our tour of the Mediterranean, I'm going to focus on the fruit that is probably the most emblematic food of the whole region: the olive.
Olives are pretty much a constant wherever you go in the Mediterranean.
They are eaten at all times of the day, put into all kinds of salads (such as the Greek horiatiki, today's recipe, and the French Nioise), cooked with all kinds of game (as in perthikes me elies, the Greek casserole of partridges with olives), poultry (as in the Moroccan djej bil zeetoon and the Greek kotopoulo me elies) and meat (the Greek
soutzoukakia Smyrneika originating in Smyrna, the Andalusian carne machada la Andalusa and the French beef casserole known as La Daube).
They are also firmly embedded in the Italian pizza, the Provenal pissaladire and in the sauce of spagehetti alla putanesca from a few weeks ago!
They are pured to make the sharp Provenal spread tapenade and they are cooked with fish, as in the Andalusian bonito con aceitunas (tuna and green olives).
In Greece and France, black olives are also added to baked salted cod.
But probably my favourite use of the olive is one of the simplest – as one of the main ingredients of the sharply appetising Greek-Cypriot bread eliopsomo.
Olive trees were created, according to Greek myth, after a competition between two Greek deities: Poseidon, the fierce and warlike god of the sea; and Athena, the tranquil goddess of wisdom and learning.
They were fighting over the over the patronage of the city of Athens.
Athena won the competition with her extremely practical and useful creation, the olive tree. This then became the symbol of' peace and victory, and she became the patron goddess of the city which to this day bears here name.
The Greeks exported olive trees and olive oil both eastwards and westwards. The olive trees in Provence, for instance, are reputed to have been planted by the colonising Greeks 2,500 years earlier, while in the eastern Mediterranean olive leaves and branches were found in all three wreaths discovered inside the tomb of Tutankhamen by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in 1922.
This salad combines most items we associate with the Mediterranean: large scarlet tomatoes, cool green cucumber, sweet peppers, onions, olives and white sheep's or goat's cheese (feta).
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Horiatiki
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INGREDIENTS (serves 4)
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
8oz/125g tomatoes, washed, dried and quartered
2inch/5cm cucumber, peeled and sliced
half of a small onion, finely sliced
1 sweet green pepper, cored,
de-seeded and sliced
8 large black olives,
preferably the heart-shaped Kalamata variety
4oz/110g feta cheese, diced
1 large pinch oregano
salt
METHOD
1. Mix together the olive oil and lemon juice in a bowl.
2. Mix together all the other ingredients. Dip your
fingers in the olive oil mixture and gently coat the salad ingredients with the dressing. Continue to do this until all the ingredients are evenly coated.
Do not 'toss' the salad, as there is nothing more illogical in my view than a randomly-dressed salad! You can serve your well-dressed salad with practically anything, but it goes particularly well with grilled lamb.
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Weather for Bedford
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 10 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
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