Recipe for Cretan Dakos

Opting for a self-catering villa holiday is one of the best ways to enjoy the foods of your destination. Instead of being stuck within the confines of a resort menu, staying in a holiday villa lets you sample the food at your leisure whether eating out or staying in. Learn a new recipe, cook with new ingredients, and have fun while you do it!

Image by Luigi Rosa, used under Creative Commons license (CC BY SA 2.0)

What better way of enjoying your stay in a Greek villa than by learning how to prepare a classic Cretan dish. Best of all, you can bring this tasty recipe back home and remind yourself of your holiday whenever you fancy!

Enjoy the best Greek food

An ever-popular Cretan favourite, dakos are an incredibly simple and especially tasty slice of Greek cuisine. Perfect for a sunny summer day on the terrace of your Corfu or Rhodes villa, dakos are essentially a simple tomato salad, but with a Hellenic twist. Traditional, rustic, and heartily Mediterranean, they offer an excellent entry into Greek cuisine.

The quality of the dish comes down to the quality of the tomatoes, so make sure you pick the ripest and juiciest ones you can! This classic meze dish is easy, tasty, and offers one of the best ways to take full advantage of the local produce.

Image by Pedro Nuno Caetano, used under Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.0)

Ingredients

4 round barley husks
4 large tomatoes
4 tbsp of olive oil
150g feta cheese
50g myzithra or ricotta cheese
40g black olives (pitted)
30g capers
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
fresh parsley or oregano
sprinkle of allspice
salt and pepper to season

Method

First you need to moisten the rusks. Do this by splashing them with water and a drizzle of olive oil. Next cut the tomatoes on half and grate them over a strainer to drain off the excess moisture. Add the grated tomatoes to the vinegar, all spice, and salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture over the rusks. Now roughly the crumble the feta and mix it with the mizithra. Spoon the cheese over to tomato mixture add the capers olives, and finally season with salt, pepper, fresh oregano and a generous glug of extra olive oil. Now it’s time to enjoy!

By Imogen Bishop, a part time travel writer, part time restaurant critic, and full time mum. She has an affinity for Mediterranean cuisine and can usually be found in the kitchen with a bottle of olive oil in hand.