This marinade, my grandmother's recipe, is a common flavoring agent in Greek food. It uses three ingredients common in Greek cooking: olive oil, lemon and oregano. It can be used to marinate vegetables, meat or fish, and it can also be used as a basting sauce when cooking. This recipe makes about a cup of marinade.
Instructions
1. Peel off one or two long strips of lemon zest with a vegetable peeler. Be careful to take just the the yellow zest, leaving the bitter white pith behind.
2. Mince the lemon zest finely - you should have about a tablespoon or so. Don't worry about exact measurements.
3. Place the zest in a mixing bowl with the salt and pepper.
4. Chop the oregano leaves roughly and add them to the bowl.
5. Grind or firmly mash the dry ingredients together with a sturdy wooden spoon, as if you were using a mortar and pestle. This helps free the essential oils in the lemon and oregano and blend them in with the salt and pepper.
6. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice from both halves into the bowl.
7. Drizzle in the olive oil in a thin steady stream, whisking constantly with a wire whisk.
8. Use the mixture to marinate food before cooking or as a basting sauce when grilling or roasting food.
Tags: basting sauce, basting sauce when, lemon oregano, lemon zest, salt pepper, sauce when, with salt
