April 9, 2013

Anti-Recipe: 'Stached Potatoes (aka Makedonitiki Skordalia, huh?)

My friend Bronda gave me an awesome cookbook for Christmas called Big Vegan: More than 350 Recipes, No Meat/No Dairy All Delicious. It is chock full of great recipes! One that I made this week is very delicious, yet impossible to pronounce and even harder to spell. It's a Greek dip called makedonitiki and the recipe strays from the usual ingredient of walnuts and calls for pistachios instead. It's basically mashed potatoes with ground pistachios mixed in...thus my new name for it 'Stached Potatoes.


To make it, all you need is a pound of potatoes, boiled until tender (I left the skins on) and then mashed.

In a food processor, create a paste of the following: a half cup of extra virgin olive oil, a fourth of a cup of lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, 4 garlic cloves, a cup of pistachios and a pinch of salt.

Stir the pistachio concoction into the potatoes until mixed well. I guess you can serve it cold or warm, as a dip or a side dish. I'm not going to lie, it has a distinct taste. I like it but I'm not sure it's something I'd make over and over again. Has anyone ever heard of this or eaten a variation of it? The original recipe supposedly called for walnuts instead of pistachios but the cookbook cites the fact that they turn the dish gray...ew.