Dakos Bread with Tomato and Feta

Dakos is a Cretan snack of bread and tomato that has recently captivated me with its simplicity and its seducing flavors and textures, it's kind of like crostini or bruschetta... However this recipe is for the real Cretan style Dakos and should be made with dry Greek Barley bread. Before I start my Dakos chitchat I ought to mention one of my favorite food quotes. “No man in the world has more courage than the man who can stop after eating one peanut” Channing Pollock... OK, forget about peanuts, these little nibbles if made properly are incredibly addictive, deceivingly simple, healthy and so amazingly tasty. Honestly if you serendipitously stumble across a tray of these little treats and attempt to eat just one. I promise you will fail miserably. After the tenth one you will seek out the guy who made them and you will probably beg him to make a few more. The first trick is the bread. kritiko paximadi is a dry bread rusk from Crete. You could try other breads, but if you want the true experience then I suggest you hunt them down. Other than that you will need an extra virgin olive oil that’s good enough to drink by the pint…just joking, but I think you know what I mean. If you can’t get fresh, ripe, red, sweet tomatoes then just quit while your ahead! (go and buy a Big Mac or something). You will also need some dry oregano (wild if possible), sea salt and black pepper.

Cretan

Type of Dish Appetiser

Ingredients

  • 8 pieces dry Cretan dakos bread (Paximadia)
  • 100 g (1/4 lb) feta cheese
  • 2 large tomatoes
  • 5 g (1 tsp) oregano
  • 1 pinch sea salt
  • 30 ml (2 Tbsp) extra virgin olive oil
  • 12 pieces black olives (for garnish)

Preparation

  1. Place the Dakos bread on a tray and sprinkle with 2tsp of cold water and 1 Tbsp of olive oil. Cover with a damp cloth and leave for 10 minutes.
  2. Grate the tomatoes on a course grater, season with a pinch of salt, oregano and 1 Tbsp of olive oil.
  3. grate the feta cheese on a course grater.
  4. spread the tomato onto the dakos, sprinkle the feta on top. sprinkle a little bit more oregano on top. garnish with olives and serve.

Further Information

Yield 4

Preparation Time is approxmiately 25 minutes.

Rating:
88
5 votes
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