Do you cook with the usual suspects: onion, potato, tomato, beef, …? If I say “dip” for potato chips do you reach for the sour cream and a pack onion soup mix?
It’s time to break free. Oh, let’s keep the sour cream, but we’re going to do something deliciously different. I’ve posted recently about roasted peppers and here’s a great avenue for them. Take those roasted peppers, add anchovies and capers, and mix in with sour cream and cream cheese. Add a dash of salt and hint of lemon juice. In a couple of minutes, you are done and different.
The roasted peppers here should have marinated in something interesting like: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and onions. Ideally, you want peppers that have marinated for at least a day or two.
This dip can multitask. It’s great with chips. It can be the base for a chicken salad or distinctive potato salad. Spread it on buns for a different burger. Or try this as your dip for artichokes. Once you taste this concoction, you’ll find plenty of reasons to make more.
As I said, I wanted to create something different here. So, I added ingredients one at a time, trying to avoid using my usual suspects. No onion. No cilantro. No dill. When I had used the ingredients below, I had something that was excellent, so the onion, cilantro, and dill went back into the refrigerator. You are welcome to experiment!
Roasted Pepper and Anchovy Dip
Yield: 1 cup
Ingredients:
4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
4 ounces sour cream
⅓ cup of roasted peppers, marinated
4 anchovy fillets
1 tablespoon of capers
1 tablespoon of caper juice from the bottle
1 teaspoon salt
Juice of ½ lemon
Preparation:
Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Process for 30-60 seconds until smooth. Adjust salt and lemon juice to taste. Cover, refrigerate, and use chilled.
Source: Brian O’Rourke