Nikos at Blackwater, 139 King Street, DG7 1DX, Castle Douglas – 01556 504345
By day a Café and coffee shop, by night, an authentic Greek and Cretan Restaurant!
Nikos comes from the beautiful Island of Crete. He has over 40 years experience working in hotels and restaurants in Crete, cruise ships and the United Kingdom.
He moved to England in 2001 and became well known and respected chef in various locations around Lancashire. He started visiting Dumfries and Galloway in 2003 and, together with his partner, Caroline, fell in love with the area and moved here in 2006.
Nikos is passionate about cooking authentic Greek and Cretan food. There are no “watered down” versions sold at Nikos@Blackwater! He says although he’s had years of experience from all over the world, the food he serves at his restaurant, a lot of the recipes came from his Mother. He uses fresh, local produce and a lot of seasonal vegetables and salad items on the menu are from his own gardens. He especially loves the wild rocket and wild radishes that grow in his gardens. His other passion is baking his own bread, it really is delicious. In fact he has made his own clay bread oven in Cross Michael!
Nikos has become quite a celebrity in Dumfries and Galloway, he has featured in Dumfries and Galloway Life Magazine and has taken part in cooking exhibitions for Food Town Days and Flavours Fortnight.
Nikos is an extremely hard working man, and is an absolute joy! He makes sure after each night of work, even if he has had an extremely busy night, that he comes out and greets his customers and makes sure that they’ve had a brilliant night, he is very attentive and just wants the very best for his customers. Another thing he loves to do is host his Greek Mezze Nights, which he has the first and last Friday of every month, where you are able to sample quite a lot of his food, in fact, 14 courses!
[column width=”1″ place=”none” ][headline]Recipe: Tzatziki [/headline]
Serve with pitta bread or bread, or add with chips or fish!
Ingredients
1 cucumber
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
500g Greek yoghurt
3 drops of vinegar
few drops of lemon juice
100g olive oil
2 teaspoons of salt
Method
- grate cucumber – by hand or food processor
- add 2 teaspoons salt, which helps extract the liquid from the cucumber
- press cucumber in a sieve to extract liquid
- Let it sit for 30 minutes
Then add to bowl with cucumber, all the other ingredients, mix well, and that’s it done!
You can keep up to date with Nikos at Blackwater on their Facebook Page
