We are fans of Diane Kochilas. In this blog, we have used several of her recipes from various books. This year, we bought a new book called Country Cooking of Greece. As we started reading through the recipes, there were several that stood out as "different" or "interesting". There were several recipes that jumped out of the book, as if they were calling to us "Make Me! Make Me!" And, that's what we did with this recipe. We listened to the book, we made the recipe, and we are very glad that we did.
When you look at a new cookbook, do you read it for pleasure, or do you start at the index to read the names of foods that sound appealing? We do both, starting at the index, and then reading each section that is most appealing at that time. So, in this book, we read through salads, dips, appetisers, vegetables, and desserts. Then, we read the meats and pies sections to anticipate options for after Easter. The pictures and photographs in this book were also great sales tools for the recipes. We love food photography. We try to incorporate some of the techniques of the pictures we like to see in what we like to write here. So the rich photography sold us on the cook book. The picture of this parsley salad made the beautiful green colour so appealing, and it looked delicious on the page, we knew that we could make it delicious in person, too. So, here is how you, too, can share in this delightful dish.
For this recipe, you will need the following:
2 cups parsley
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp capers, rinsed
2 cups dry bread crumbs
1/2 to 1 cup olive oil
2 to 3 TBSP red wine vinegar
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
In a food processor, mince together the parsley, onion, garlic, and capers. Pulse or puree the mixture until it is well chopped. It will become almost smooth and you will not be able to identify the individual components.
Add the bread crumbs to the food processor, and the lemon juice. Puree again. Pulsing worked well here because the amount of mixture in the food processor was about the same as the amount of breadcrumbs we were adding. Now, run the processor until the mixture is rather smooth.
Then, add the oil and the red wine vinegar. You want to start with the half cup of oil, then increase the amount as needed, not exceeding 1 cup. This is so you can judge the texture of the puree. The amount of oil needed will change with the type of bread crumb you use. We use Panko bread crumbs in this recipe. They absorb less oil than a traditional, small ground bread crumb. You will also be able to adjust the amount of red wine vinegar in this step. The amount needed will depend on your tastes and preferences.
Puree this until it is as smooth as you like. Remember, you will likely have to scrape the sides of the processor to make sure that nothing sticks to the side, and that all the ingredients are incorporated. Add salt and pepper to meet your tastes, and then serve with pita bread, crackers, veggies… or you can use it as a sandwich spread!
We like this recipe. It reminded of us of a parsley flavoured mild skordalia. There was something about it that was light and flavourful -- it could just be the combination of parsley and garlic that give a lovely flavour, without being overwhelming. We had some roasted vegetables from dinner the other night that we put in a sandwich, and used this Chopped Parsley Salad as the sandwich spread. The layers of flavours between the parsley, garlic, and the vegetables, and that little hint of red wine vinegar really sent our taste buds soaring! It is a recipe to try, to keep, and to make again and again -- especially since it was all done in the food processor and took about five minutes!
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| Source of image: http://orthodoxchurchquotes.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/st-john-chrysostom-71.jpg |
St. John Chrysostom, On the Statues, Homily 3
Source of quote: http://orthodoxchurchquotes.com/page/3/
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