Cook and Scale
Skordalia
4 servings · 35 min total
A fierce Greek purée of hot potato beaten with raw garlic, almonds and olive oil, sharpened with vinegar and lemon — the classic partner to fried fish or boiled beetroot.
Ingredients
- 600 g potato, peeled and cut into large chunks
- 4 garlic
- 60 g almonds, blanched
- 1½ dl olive oil
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 dl water, from the potato pan
Contains: Tree nuts, Sulphites
Allergen info is best-effort — please verify yourself.
Method
- 1.
Boil the potatoes soft — Put the potatoes in a pan of cold salted water, bring to the boil and cook for 15-18 minutes, until a knife slides in with no resistance at all. Anything less and the purée will stay lumpy.
- 2.
Pound garlic and almonds — While they cook, pound the garlic with the salt in a mortar until it turns to a wet white cream, then work in the almonds a handful at a time until you have a coarse, oily paste.
- 3.
Mash the potatoes hot — Drain the potatoes, saving 100 ml of the cooking water. Return them to the hot pan for a minute over low heat to steam dry, then mash them smooth while they are still steaming — never in a food processor, which turns them to glue.
- 4.
Beat in the olive oil — Beat the garlic and almond paste into the hot mash with a wooden spoon, then add the olive oil in a thin stream, beating hard between additions so it is fully absorbed each time. The purée will stiffen and turn glossy.
- 5.
Loosen and sharpen — Loosen with the reserved potato water a spoonful at a time until it is thick but spoonable, then beat in the vinegar and lemon juice. Taste for salt and sharpness — it should sting pleasantly. Serve warm or at room temperature with fried fish or boiled beetroot.