Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Greekish Salad
So the deal is that I'm not really feeling the feta cheese that my local Kroger store carries, and I don't want to resort to the stuff that is packed in olive oil, so I was feeling quite adventurous this past weekend when I picked up a slab of Fetiri, which I thought to be a cheese related to feta (since, like feta, it is also made of sheep and goat's milk) but is still significantly different (because it is called Fetiri and not feta).
I go ahead and make a salad using this Fetiri, throw in some vine tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, red onion, hot house cucumbers and oregano, toss it with some olive oil, white wine vinegar and S&P, and SURPRISE! I have a Greek salad for dinner.
"Isn't a Greek salad make with feta?" you ask.
"Turns out this so called Fetiri, with a capital F, is really a feta cheese disguised with some herbs and spices," I say.
True, I was disappointed by this revelation, but at the end of the day, my salad was pretty kick-ass (if I may say so myself). I really considered writing out a recipe for this salad, being that so far I have not included any original Cousit concoctions, but really guys, if you needed a recipe for this you wouldn't be reading food blogs, now would you. I didn't think so.
Perhaps the few grains of wisdom I could add would be to:
a) Slice the cuke down lengthwise and scoop out the seeds from the center. Chop as you wish, then place in a colander and sprinkle some salt (sea, kosher, table, fleur de, whatev) on top. Toss, and let sit as you prep the rest of the ingredients. This process will dry out the cukes and prevent your salad from becoming too watery. This trick is especially effective when making tzatziki or a chilled cucumber-yogurt soup.
b) Add some za'atar (a middle eastern spice mix made of sumac, sesame seeds, wild thyme or hyssop) if you don't have oregano. It gives the salad a very nice woodsy taste. On second thought, if you don't have oregano, you probably don't have za'atar, so make sure you go out and buy some from your local farmer's market.
c) I don't have a c. But "few" = more than 2, so there you go.
And that's all, folks. The final verdict on the Fetiri is....that it is good. Good like feta. Good like any sheep and goat's milk cheese from Thessaly, Greece aged two months in brine. Nothing spesh, nothing fabu, just....plain old feta.
