With Memorial Day and the heat of summer coming, it's time to take a dip.
That is, it's time to bring a dip to a summer picnic.
You could stir a packet of dried onion soup into a tub of sour cream, of course. It's delicious, but everyone would know exactly how much effort you spent on them (none). You could buy a tub of hummus, but that involves even less effort _ and isn't it kind of an insult to your family and friends essentially to say, "I love you, but not enough to go to any trouble for you"?
This year, make your own dip. It's fun, it tastes great and it shows you care enough to mix the very best.
And the cool thing is, you can even make your own version of that ever-popular dried onion soup dip. Your friends and family will know it's not the instant version because its taste is richer. Rounder. Fuller.
It only takes a minute or two longer to make than the one that you open the package and pour.
All you have to do is assemble the dried ingredients: minced onions, onion powder, black pepper, sugar, dried parsley (or fresh parsley) and the secret ingredient, beef bouillon granules. Just mix them together, add sour cream and stir _ just like the old way of making it.
Serve it to your friends and observe the subtle nods of approval they give you when you casually mention that you made it yourself.
The next dip I made was also familiar, baba ghanouj. If you've never had baba ghanouj, think of it as a more sophisticated version of hummus.
The difference is eggplant. Baba ghanouj, which is also from the Middle East, uses grilled eggplant instead of chickpeas for its main ingredient. The grilling gives it a smoky flavor that appeals to a lot of people.
But not me. I prefer hummus to baba ghanouj precisely because it does not taste smoky. So when I made the eggplant-based dip, I simply roasted the vegetables in the oven instead of grilling them.
That did the trick. Now it had that unmistakable eggplanty flavor (plus tahini, lemon, garlic) without being overwhelmed by the smoke.
It was terrific. I very much recommend making it this way. And if you miss the smoke, you can always sprinkle in a little smoked paprika.
My next dip takes the flavors of Mexico and gives them a distinctly Asian vibe. Hipster chefs may think that mashing together Mexican and Asian cuisines is the newest trend on the planet, but they need to know that Daniel Boulud came up with this recipe way back in 1993 _ before some of the younger hipster chefs were even born.
Now one of the most acclaimed chefs in the world, Boulud introduced the recipe in his first book, "Cooking with Daniel Boulud." Avocado dip with sesame seeds is essentially guacamole (though without the garlic) mixed with a taste of dark sesame oil and topped with toasted sesame seeds.
The result is a more complex version of guacamole. The darkly mysterious sesame oil plays wonderfully off the brightness of the avocado and lime.
You might think it wouldn't work, but it absolutely does.
My last dip, like baba ghanouj, was from the Middle East. Muhammara is perhaps more of a spread than a dip, but that amounts to nearly the same thing. Besides, it is wildly delicious.
Muhammara (the word means brick, because it is about the same color) is made from roasted red peppers and walnuts pureed together with olive oil into a coarse paste. But there is more to it than that: a pleasant bite from chopped scallions, the lively acid of a dash of lemon juice, the enjoyable heat from crushed red peppers and the indispensable depth of cumin.
Plus one more ingredient: pomegranate molasses. If you've never had it, pomegranate molasses is just about the best thing ever; it's tart, but it's enlivened with a little sweetness.
You can buy it for a couple of bucks at a Middle Eastern store or an international food market. I usually try to avoid writing about ingredients that require a special trip, but pomegranate molasses is a happy exception.
Once you've used it to make muhammara, you'll want to try it in everything _ salad dressings, drinks, meat glazes, vegetable glazes and more. Or maybe you'll just want to hoard it to make nothing but muhammara.
It's just that good.
