My mother has a Greek friend named Kula who also happens to be mother and aunt to people I am friends with from high school. It was Kula who introduced us to this wonderful traditional Greek dip called Taramasalata many, many years ago. We always had it at Christmas.

The base for my recipe came from St. Luke’s Greek Orthodox Church Women’s Auxikary cookbook “Greek Cooking in An American Kitchen.”

The church is located in Broomall , Pennsylvania and this is Kula’s church and she worked on the edition of the cookbook I have which is the 1997 edition. They started printing this book in 1973. I am imagine they still produce the book. It has fabulous recipes and I refer to it often.

This is a delicious dip. I just made a batch so I thought I would share the recipe. If you you not have a Greek or Mediterranean food store local to you it is possible to mail order the Tarama. Krinos foods sells it and I buy mine from Prima Foods in Baltimore.

Don’t be all cheese and crackers for Christmas, this is simple to make and tastes delicious. I am bringing it to two Christmas parties and serving it myself Christmas Day. I made my first batch today. Usually I use a blender or food processor, but today I just used my handheld blender and it worked fine!

Thanks for stopping by!

Taramasalata

4 small onions (2 red 2 sweet)
1 10 oz jar Tarama
Juice of four good-sized lemons (make sure no seeds)
16 slices of white bread crusts removed (stale preferred)
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup Italian flat leaf parsley minced
6 drops Tabasco sauce – which is about two small shakes
fresh cracked pepper to taste

Finally chop onions and throw into food processor. Further process onions with a couple pulses of food processor. Add Tarama and process thoroughly until smooth. Add lemon juice and continue blending. Tear up the crust free white bread into small pieces and feed a couple slices at a time into your mixture while blending some more until bread all incorporated. Add parsley and process more. At Kino oil in a small stream followed by the olive oil. Add the Tabasco and cracked pepper. The dip will be creamy colored with little green flecks from the parsley.

Refrigerate until ready to serve. I generally make this one to two days in advance. Serve with cut up wedges of pita, garnish if you would like with lemons and cucumbers. I also like to serve some nice olives alongside.