Dips, cold or hot

[stellabella]

Lately I am into whipping up dips for crackers and veg sticks--they're quick and easy and healthful, now that summer is almost over and I have to go back to work & need to pack lunches. Earlier this week I threw together some really simple hummus and babaghanouj, and tried the following last night:

a dozen button mushrooms sauteed in a t. of EVOO

3 hot red anaheim peppers, seeded

2 garlic gloves

juice of one lemon

1 t. olive oil

1/2 c. pecans [walnuts would've been better but i hadn't none]

salt to taste

above thrown into food processor and blasted into paste, served with crunchy carrot sticks and bell pepper strips. for a party i'd want to serve good crackers, like lavasch [am i spelling it right? does everyone know what i mean? LOVE it]

Can anyone share some quick & easy [or not so quick & easy, but delicious] recipes for dips and spreads?

[Suzanne F]

At Follonico, Alan Tardi used to make an utterly simple, utterly addictive Bagna Cauda, with basically just olive oil, lots and lots of sliced garlic, and anchovies. Served warm with raw veg. Sigh....

Oops, that won't work for a bag lunch. Sorry. For that sort of thing, I like cottage cheese mashed with chopped herbs (fresh is best; dried will work if you make it the night before) and a little minced onion-type veg. Works with any veg, any cracker.

[CathyL]

I make a pseudo-Romesco based on a red pepper dip recipe in Jacques Pepin's 'The Short-Cut Cook.'

1 lb. roasted red peppers (Jacques suggests the jarred ones; I buy them at a good prepared-foods counter)

3-4 ounces pecans, toasted until fragrant

large clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup or so EVOO

salt & pepper

ground hot pepper (I use chipotle)

Whir the peppers, pecans and garlic in a processor, add the olive oil gradually and season to taste. It's good with raw veggies, pita, lavash, etc.

Everyone in my family makes a very simple chopped eggplant (from my Romanian grandma): a few eggplants, roasted until near collapse (I do them over a slow charcoal fire), the pulp mashed and mixed with a little grated onion, salt and pepper. I like it best with pumpernickel bread or rye Melba rounds. Joyce Goldstein has a wonderful Turkish version of this, with toasted walnuts and yogurt - recipe here. I put ground toasted cumin in it too.

[Suzanne F]

Well, I don't care if they ARE declasse'! And I love the crunch. They're usually the safest thing to eat at receptions, calorie-wise. The dips, on the other hand, uh oh.

I also make variations on tapenade -- ALWAYS with anchovies, and cured black olives, but with or without other fish (tuna, sardines). The soft saltiness is great against sweet crunchy vegs.

[MartyL]

My friend Manuel made a delicious smoked trout mousse that he served prior to a recent champagne-themed dinner. This is probably best served, as he did, with toasted thin pumpernickel wedges, and it goes wonderfully well with Champagne. His recipe follows below:

Smoked Trout Mousse on Pumpernickel Toasts

Makes a decent-size bowl that will serve about 8:

8 Oz. Store-bought smoked trout filets, no skin, no bones.

4 Tbsp. Heavy Cream

2 Sticks good unsalted butter, softened

2 tbsp chopped dill

Splash of jalapeño sauce

Splash of lime juice

Pulse the smoked fish with the heavy cream in a food processor until you have a coarse paste. Add the dill, pulse some more. Then start adding the softened butter in pieces. The paste will smoothen a lot. Look for a consistency that's velvety rather than silky. Add splashes of the jalapeño sauce and lime to taste. Depending on the Champagne you're serving with it, you may want to make the mousse more acidic or more piquant-pungent.

Serve with toasted wedges of pumpernickel bread.

[CathyL]

My friend Manuel made a delicious smoked trout mousse that he served prior to a recent champagne-themed dinner.  This is probably best served, as he did, with toasted thin pumpernickel wedges, and it goes wonderfully well with Champagne.  

That looks yummy. I often make a less refined version: flake the smoked fish, stir in sour cream (I use low-fat, shhhhh), minced scallions, lemon juice, salt and pepper. When I can find pumpernickel baguettes, I slice thin rounds and toast them; it's also good spread on cucumber slices. I usually serve Riesling, but once I had a bottle of Jonge Genever - marvelous match.

[helen jackson]

This is great - a form of guacamole but with presrved lemon added which works really well.

Preserved Lemon and Avocado Dip

1 large ripe avocado, peeled and roughly chopped

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1/3 cup coriander leaves, chopped

1 green chilli, seeded and finely chopped

1 medium vine ripened tomato, de seeded and chopped

juice of 1 lime

1 clove garlic, crushed

sea salt

½ preserved lemon, skin only, finely chopped

Gently combine all ingredients in a bowl. Serve with parmesan and pine nut crisps.

[Pitter]

This is my own rendition of a recipe from A Mediterranean Harvest by Paola Scaravelli and Jon Cohen. I have always said that if I ever open a restaurant, I will put crocks of this on every table to accompany breadsticks. It contains no fat (which doesn't matter to me, necessarily, but is a fact) and is cooling like sorbet. And hugely flavorful, and cheap to make, at least in August.

Roast in the oven until soft and lightly carmelized:

One pound potatoes

One pound tomatoes

One pound onions

One pound red bell peppers

One pound eggplant

A whole bulb garlic

Peel, seed, and puree the whole mess in a food processor or blender. Stir in some fresh herbs -- I usually use some basil and fresh thyme, and a tiny amount of red wine or balsamic vinegar, and some salt, pepper and cayenne. Flavors come alive after an hour or so. When it is not tomato season, I use canned Romas, and I have been known to substitute the red peppers with good quality jarred. The original recipe calls for a tablespoon or so of ev olive oil. I don't even bother. In addition to using this as a dip, I dollop it onto tomato slices in the summer. It is very versatile.

[SobaAddict70]

Stellabella,

Have you ever tried using caponata as a dip? This is a pretty easy recipe I use, and serve with toasted pita wedges (for scooping).

Roast eggplant, wrapped in foil, until soft. Unwrap and let cool. Saute onion, celery, bell peppers (a mix of red, orange and yellow peppers is great) and oregano in some EVOO; cook until vegetables are tender, add one or two tomatoes, and cook until the mixture breaks down into a sauce-like consistency. Add a little balsamic vinegar, stir, and remove from heat. Peel, seed and chop the eggplant; add to pan, along with raisins, capers, (oil-cured) olives and a pinch of sugar. Stir briefly and cook for about 5 to 10 minutes, then take off heat and transfer to a bowl. Drizzle some more EVOO, and adjust seasoning.

SA

[CathyL]

Roast eggplant, wrapped in foil, until soft.  Unwrap and let cool.  Saute onion, celery, bell peppers (a mix of red, orange and yellow peppers is great) and oregano in some EVOO; cook until vegetables are tender, add one or two tomatoes, and cook until the mixture breaks down into a sauce-like consistency.  Add a little balsamic vinegar, stir, and remove from heat.  Peel, seed and chop the eggplant; add to pan, along with raisins, capers, (oil-cured) olives and a pinch of sugar.  Stir briefly and cook for about 5 to 10 minutes, then take off heat and transfer to a bowl.  Drizzle some more EVOO, and adjust seasoning. 

Soba, what a lovely dish. But why foil the eggplant? It picks up such nice roasty flavor when baked nekkid.

[mamster]

It will surprise no one that I'm partial to the Thai dips known as nam prik. Here's a recipe for one with pork and tomato, and here's one with catfish. I think these would make a great sack lunch, but they do kind of smell.

Oh, and here's one with beetles.

[Ron Johnson]

I love tapenade and caponata.

I used to cuise' sundried tomatoes with a little garlic and softened fresh goat cheese and served with deep-fried pita wedges when I bartended. They were very good and went well with most cocktails, and both red and white wine.

[SobaAddict70]

ewwww.....beetles.

I foil the eggplant because that's the way I've always done it....but good idea.

SA

[Suzanne F]

FYI: The September & October 2002 issue of Cook's Illustrated has one piece on creamy dips, and another on proper veg prep for crudités / crudites. Oh, and their directions for "How to Pan-Roast Chicken" did, in fact, work perfectly.

[researchgal]

This one's a standard at our house:

Feta

Pitted kalamatas

chopped garlic

chopped sundried tom's

Cream Cheese

Yogurt (if you can get the Total Greek yogurt, it's the best!)

Give it a whirl in the processor. If you want to cut back on the fat, you can get lowfat cc and non-fat Total, it really doesn't detract from the flavor.

[heyjude]

This summer, while in Vancouver, B.C. on vacation, we visited Barbara-Jo's Books to Cooks where they were featuring Rick Rodger's newest book. In their demo kitchen, they were serving samples from "dip it!" (ISBN#0-06-000223-9). They were all very tasty especially the Curried Vegetable Dip. Each recipe has suggested dippers and make ahead info. The Spinach Dip is very similar to Rachel's. For a small, single subject book, this has a lot of must tries.

[stagis]

I got it!!! I figgered it out!!! EVOO is extra-virgin olive oil.....I feel better about myself now...........

Dips? Beau Monde, of course!!! (When the in-laws are coming). I personally like the Asian habit of a few bowls of this-n-that, and if translated over to Western cooking, hmmm... (this is a new line of thought for me)... Salt, maybe some olive oil, a little hot sauce? Separate containers... (I've gone into cheapskate mode here...all this stuff comes in packs at fast-food places)...some veggies and you have a snack that'll make your mouth in suspense for the next bite....

Soy? Mirin? wasabi? Inner Beauty hot sauce? This brings up memories of a memorable Mongolian Hot Pot dinner - 8 of us, about a million dipping things, and I was the only one who enjoyed it..... ah, well...

[gknl]

Try this cilantro sauce: cilantro, garlic, ginger, jalapeno pepper, lemon juice, evoo, cumin, all blended or processed together into a smooth paste.

I've had a few people who say they don't usually like cilantro like this sauce a lot. It's the recipe for Moroccan Eggplant by Felipe Rojas-Lombardi in The James Beard Celebration Cookbook. It goes great with roasted or grilled vegetables, but raw ones work too. I've even put it on hamburgers. Definitely good stuff, Maynard.

[CathyL]

Try this cilantro sauce:  cilantro, garlic, ginger, jalapeno pepper, lemon juice, evoo, cumin, all blended or processed together into a smooth paste. 

Wow - I'd love that!

The Hampton Chutney Company in NY makes a killer cilantro chutney with coconut and (I think) dates. I pick up a container when I'm pressed for time and serve it with veggies or lavash; it's always devoured.

[Jaymes]

All the chitchat about dips over in the Velveeta thread caused me to do a search to see if we'd talked about dips before.

And we have....

So here's a favorite of mine, which is soooo much better with the flavorful tomatoes of summer, still in the markets now:

Green Chiles & Olives Dip

2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded, drained and chopped

3-4 green onions, tops and all, chopped

1 small can chopped black olives, well drained

1 small can chopped green chiles, not drained

3 T EVOO

1 tsp garlic salt

1 1/2 tsp vinegar

s & p to taste

Stir all together and let sit in the fridge for a few hours to combine flavors. (If you like it hotter than those mild green chiles, chop some canned jalapenos and add those as well.) Serve with tortilla chips.

This is absolutely delicious. Seems simple, and it is, but it's much more than a sum of its parts.

One of the keys is to very finely chop the tomatoes and onions. In fact, back when I was Miss Social, we entertained a lot, and went to a lot of the sorts of parties where everyone had to bring something.

I had given out this recipe to many of my friends, who made it regularly.

At one party, a couple approached me. The husband said, "I love that dip; will you give the recipe to my wife?"

The wife interjected, "I have that recipe...there's some sitting in the refrigerator right now."

Husband: "Oh. Well, yours doesn't taste as good as hers...."

Wife: "She chops it a lot finer. I hate chopping."

Edited August 24, 2007 by Jaymes (log)

[Toliver]

Jaymes,

thanks for posting the recipe. It sounds great!

Has anyone tried Ina Garten's (aka The Barefoot Contessa) "Sun-dried Tomato Dip"?

While it looks nice, it was surprisingly lackluster in flavor, IMHO. Does anyone have any suggestions for what could make the dip more flavorful?

[annecros]

Jaymes,

thanks for posting the recipe. It sounds great!

Has anyone tried Ina Garten's (aka The Barefoot Contessa) "Sun-dried Tomato Dip"?

While it looks nice, it was surprisingly lackluster in flavor, IMHO. Does anyone have any suggestions for what could make the dip more flavorful?

←

It needs garlic, I think. Maybe some dried mustard.

[Jaymes]

Reading the "What is your most requested recipe?" thread reminded me of this dip, the recipe for which I'm always asked to share:

Beer-Cheese Dip

1 C good, strong beer - no "lite" types

3 6-oz pkgs prepared sharp cheddar cheese spread

2 T butter - room temp

1/2 yellow onion, coarsely chopped

1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped

1 t Worsty

1 1/2 oz bleu cheese (or more, to taste)

1 large round loaf of bread

Put all ingredients except bread into blender or food processor and process until thoroughly combined.

Dig out center of bread to make a well to hold about 1 1/2 cups. Place on large platter. Tear the bread you dug out into "dipping size" chunks and arrange around the loaf. Pour the beer-cheese dip into center.

After the bread chunks are gone, get a sharp, serrated knife and place on platter for guests to cut bread "bowl" into more chunks.

[Dana]

Jaymes - is that the cheese spread in the little jars??? Kraft, I think?

Or something else?

[Jaymes]

Jaymes - is that the cheese spread in the little jars??? Kraft, I think?  Or something else?

I used to use the sharp cheddar spread that came in those little squeezable tubes. But you can use any sharp spread.