WHAT IS TIROKAFTERI?

Looking for heat, tang, and salt?  This is the recipe for you!  Tirokafteri (also known as Ktipiti) is a Greek dip made from feta cheese, strained yogurt, hot peppers, and olive oil. It’s a delicious dip for pita bread or crudité as well as a sandwich spread.

SUGGESTIONS WHEN MAKING TIROKAFTERI

• Which pepper?
  You can use whatever hot peppers you like for this dip but we suggest staying in the medium-hot range so as not to overpower the dip. Roasted red peppers can add nice color and sweet flavor to tirokafteri too.  But the dish won’t suffer without it. You can also make your own roasted red peppers using our recipe here.
• Delicious and healthy for your digestive system too?

Yogurt has been shown to have a lot of health benefits.  However many of them come from the bacterial culture in the yogurt still being alive.  Sadly the FDA has still not created a standard of identity that would legally force yogurt manufactures to a common measure of what constitutes a “live” culture.  In general a live culture yogurt needs to be consumed within around 6 weeks of production at least 2 to 3 times a week for a solid 4 weeks.  This gives the culture enough time to take up real estate in your tummy.  Then it becomes like a bacterial “good neighbor”, aiding with digestion, helping to prevent certain types of cancer, food poisoning, etc.  Little known fact, the reason the culture can thrive in a human stomach is that at some point in time long ago, it was harvested from a human!

WHAT PAIRS WELL WITH TIROKAFTERI?

This dish is a cheese spread, so it pairs very well with bread, crackers or even in a sandwich.  The hint of spiciness that the red flakes add is a delicious contrast to creamy decadence of the yogurt and olive oil.  If you’re pairing this with a wine, pick something that will stand up to that hint of fire.  Or during a hot summer day, just let it overwhelm you!   Stick with a crisp, dry white wine. (written by Chef Stef)