Here is another Greek cheese-based dish/dip that we tasted in Athens and vowed to attempt or replicate when back in Manila. It’s amazing how three ingredients can transform themselves into such an appetizing dip. Before attempting to make my first tyrokafteri, I looked through several cookbooks and surfed various recipes on the net. The least complicated recipes had three ingredients: feta, chilli peppers and olive oil, while the more complicated ones added yoghurt or cream cheese and some other spices and lemon to jazz it up. Again, frankly, I think this is driven by the quality of your cheese and the range of fetas can go from boring to brilliant and from dry to creamy. With so much sheep’s milk and goat’s milk feta in the fridge, I decided to try it with the sheep’s milk feta, a nice chunk worth of it, some 200 grams perhaps. Then I pulled out a bottle of mild chilli peppers, greek-style, purchased at Metro Grocery, Market!Market! And of course, yahoo!, some really good Greek olive oil, part of the maleta filled with food that Sister brought along a couple of weeks ago…
Just crumble the cheese into a mortar, add some finely chopped bottled chilli peppers and some of its juice/soaking liquid, and a few tablespoons of olive oil and smush with the pestle until much smoother, though it will still be lumpy. I found that I needed more olive oil than I originally would have guessed, so I can see why other recipes include yoghurt to help the dish along. However, the resulting tyrokafteri was utterly delicious, flavorful and just spicy enough. Perfect with toasted pita triangles. Here served in an olive wood bowl and cutting board. Perfect party fare or tv snack. Just don’t eat too much of it as we did, we had serious salt overdose a little later in the evening! :)
14 Responses
Wow, looks great! Can I use Spanish olive oil instead of Greek? And what brand of commerical feta cheese would you recommend for this?
CecileJ, yes spanish olive oil would work, but it does have a slightly different flavor. As for the cheese, try to find one which is less dry… there are several sheep’s milk fetas at S&R and the large metro groceries.
can i put feta in a cracker called fita?
love that bowl and board!
I love mezzetta peperoncini, just the right amount of spiciness for me. My salads are never complete without them, love it with pizzas, sliced in sandwiches or on any of my fish dish. Thank you for giving me a brilliant idea, just one more way to enjoy my peperoncini.
Wonderful post, Mr MM!!! This is something I can easily whip up for a nice Saturday night get-together with friends. Yumminess!!!
This is what I’ve been waiting for! thanks MM! will try this one out this weekend. =D
I think that you are turning Greek MM! You have more Greek recipes on your blog than me!!!
I like how such an unctuous product is branded “spitiko”. :)
Lee, ha ha our equivalent of Fita here is Ritz and their tv ads are quite ritzy, I remember one with a Fred Astaire look alike in white tie hoofing it off on “I do not want to set the world on fire I just want to start a flame in your heart.â€
B, Receptive to that kind of association too. I won’t try stinco di vitello nor eat at a Thai restaurant called Singha.
Would pepperonci work for this? I saw some in S&R.
Oops, I meant pepperoncini. I just took a good look at the label of the bottle of peppers in your photo and I think it says golden pepperoncini. Guess I answered my own question, duh!
FoodJunkie, the key question is… does this GREEK FOOD pass muster with a GREEK?! :)
That sounds like something I’d love, MM! I believe Cyma also has this dish (or was it Mati?), but without the chili. I like your version!