During the summer I make a lot of "minimalist" horatiki, (that salad you see on a lot of Greek menus) "Minimalist in that I leave out the olives (don't like 'em) green peppers (don't like 'em AND can't digest them) and the feta (usually don't have any really good feta on hand unless I've been to Yaranush in the last day or so, and without it, the salad will actually keep for more than a day or two, so I can make extra) that leaves
Tomatoes (heirloom, which is why I only do it in the summer usually. I tend to prefer Green Zebras)
Onions (red)
Cucumber (English/Kirby if I have to (Japanese are not wet enough) but when I have full farmers market choice, I prefer a kiva type (one of those heirlooms with the crackly cantaloupe like skin)
Olive oil (whichever I have on hand provided it is a good one)
Vinegar (Red wine, as strong as I can buy)
Salt (sea; preferably (when I have it) Dead Sea or Kalahari Desert (which is still technically considered a sea salt)
Pepper, freshly ground (will mix in some powdered long pepper* or cubeb pepper if I happen to have any around, for depth)
Lemon zest (freshly micro-planed, whole lemon's worth)
Lemon Juice (from the lemon I just zested)
Cuban Oregano (2-3 sprigs) and Spanish Thyme (2-3 leaves) freshly picked and crushed (This is actually the most important discovery I have found. Since Spanish Thyme and Cuban Oregano are succulents they actually have juice which means they integrate into the marinade much faster than the normal kinds of the herbs do.)
1. Slice tomatoes into quarters and cucumbers and onions into thin slices (the thinner the better)
2. Place all ingredients in bowl (note, as you have probably figured out, zest the lemon before you cut it in half and juice it.)
3. Crush vigorously with a potato masher
4. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or more (the longer it sits, the more the onions will mellow)
5. Eat, with crusty bread to sop up extra marinade.
*Note: If you are planning to grind long pepper (Piper longum) yourself you will probably need a dedicated coffee grinder to do it, as the grains are too big and too hard for a standard pepper grinder to handle. If you want to do it the old fashioned way with a stone mortal and pestle, be my guess, but you'll probably need one HELL of a set of arm muscles to do it (someday I'll have to ask someone who is Indian how they do it) Cubebs (sometimes called comet tail pepper) are softer than normal peppercorns, so they grind just fine in a standard grinder.)
