The Hirshon Skordalia – σκορδαλιά

Skordalia Image Used Under Creative Commons License From mygreekdish.com

Citizens! Skordalia is a thick puree (or sauce, dip, spread, etc.) favored in Greek cuisine and made by combining crushed garlic (a LOT of crushed garlic!) with a base – which may be a purée of potatoes, walnuts, almonds, or liquid-soaked stale bread — and then beating in olive oil to make a smooth emulsion. Vinegar is often added as well. Cooks in Macedonia, Ionian islands and Crete often add walnuts or almonds to mashed potatoes or soaked bread. Greek recipes from Asia Minor sometimes add pine nuts as well.

Skordalia has a long history, going all the way back to ancient Greece – Byzantine cookery was also full of recipes that employed garlic in sauces for meats, fishes and vegetables. The very oldest current cookbooks base skordalia on a combination of blanched almonds and mashed potatoes (which is what I use). All these combinations of garlic, bread and nuts owe a lot to Middle Ages recipes, where the use of vinegar is a tell-tale ingredient (in the original Middle Ages recipe, sour grape juice called Verjus would have been used instead).

As noted by Diane Kochilas: “Connoisseurs of skordalia know that a certain ritual is part and practice of its preparation. I will never forget once walking in on an old caterer friend who was making skordalia for a party—by hand, potato by potato, drop by drop of olive oil, pinch by pinch of salt, in a mortar, pounding each potato with the pestle with zenlike rhythm. To this day, the mortar and pestle are the best tools for making skordalia because they allow for the control of speed with which one breaks down the starch in the potatoes or bread that most commonly make up the base. A food processor’s blade is too swift and violent and results in a gummy skordalia.”

Skordalia is a great dip for pita chips or vegetables (cucumber slices, pepper strips, etc.) and is also fantastic as a sauce with seafood. I personally enjoy this as an alternative to hummus and hope you will give this classic, simple and delicious recipe a try, Citizens! Just be sure EVERYONE eats it, to spread the garlic love to all! 😉

Battle on – The Generalissimo