Chard-tastic

The hot weather still hadn't let up and after an enjoyable recall to the cricket team in some sticky heat the day before I sought out something fresh for Sunday dinner on the last Sunday in July. The inspiration came from a recipe originating in Greece a country with more warm weather than this country; most of the time. The plan was to make a dip using some white chard that I had been cultivating for the passed two months. Chard is a vegetable that is often overlooked by many as it is not regularly available in the supermarkets and therefore the only exposure to it is likely to be if you grow it yourself.

The Chard looks very similar to spinach or lettuce when fully grown and ready to harvest and either the stems, the leaves or both can be used in meals. The taste of Chard is slightly less gravelly than spinach but less bland than most lettuce.

For this dish I harvested enough leaves to fill a small teacup and then covered them with boiling water in a bowl to kill any germs that wild insects may have placed on them during their time in the garden. Next I added them to a pan of boiling water, simmered them for five minutes and after draining the pan left them on one side in a colander to cool.

As I finely cut two cloves of garlic the rather dated drum sounds of Roger Waters' 1987 album Radio KAOS beat out of the stereo. The album was Waters' first after leaving Pink Floyd and is a typically ambitious work which deals with the negative impacts of Monetarism in the form of Ronald Reagan's and Margaret Thatcher's Policies. Although the references to these long since departed leaders could make the album even more an 80's relic its concerns still ring true today albeit that they apply now to different world leaders.

After the garlic was dealt with I added it to a small bowl with two teaspoons of cayenne pepper, a tablespoon of juice from a lemon and seven tablespoon's of fresh, plain Greek Yoghurt. I then added the Chard and whisked all the ingredients together until the Chard had thoroughly blended with the yoghurt.

I served the dip with some raw carrot, cheese and biscuits which the dip's fresh yet spicy taste complemented perfectly.

Culture clash- the freshly prepared Greek Style dip which was served with cheese and biscuits that most English of dishes.