Tarator

As tradition built it

Serves 4. About 15 minutes, plus chilling.

Ingredients

• 500g kiselo mlyako
• 200 to 250ml cold water
• 1 large, about 300g cucumber, grated
• 3 to 4 tbsp walnut, crushed
• 2 tbsp dill, chopped
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• to taste salt

Method

1. Thin the kiselo mlyako with cold water.
2. Add grated cucumber, crushed walnut, chopped dill and garlic.
3. Finish with a slick of sunflower oil and salt to taste.
4. Chill thoroughly before serving.

Notes

Its whole character depends on a genuinely cultured, unstrained yoghurt, per rung one; a strained, Greek-style substitute throws the texture and the tang both off at once.

What a modern chef changes

A home-cultured base, chinois-strained, with a toasted walnut oil and dehydrated cucumber

Rung 1

Method

1. Start from a home-cultured kiselo mlyako judged by nose and set rather than a shop tub, per rung one exactly.
2. Blend the base in a high-power blender and pass it through a chinois for a genuinely silken result rather than the rustic, visibly grated original.
3. Toast the walnuts and work half of them into a walnut oil finished with a touch of the crushed nut itself, drizzled rather than scattered.
4. Dehydrate thin cucumber ribbons to a light crisp for a textural contrast dropped on top just before serving, against the smooth cold base beneath.