I Dip, You Dip, We Dip

I have joked in the past that this blog should have been called Minxdips because there's more than a handful of recipes for saucy things that work well on a tortilla chip or cracker. Dips are usually pretty easy to throw together, and they aren't just for dipping chips. Sometimes I'll use one as a sandwich spread, or as a sauce for a roasted cauliflower, kebabs, or roasted chicken. Hummus is one of my favorites to make, even if I don't technically make "hummus" because I don't use chickpeas) and among the most versatile.

The following is a list of links to the dips on Minxeats. If you enjoy any, I'd love to read your comments.

artichoke spinach dip

Artichoke Spinach Dip

Caponata

Cheesy Corn Dip

Edamame Hummus

Eggplant Artichoke Appetizer

Lemony Eggplant Dip

Lemony Tomato Pepper Relish
Mediterranean Bean Dip

Mediterranean Pimento Cheese

Miso Eggplant Dip

Muhammara

nutella cannoli dip

Nutella Cannoli Dip

Parsnip Hummus

pink sultan (yogurt with beets)

Pink Sultan

pizza pimento cheese

Pizza Pimento Cheese

Romesco Sauce

Shakshouky
Shrimp and Artichoke Dip

Smoky Southwest Eggplant Dip

South x Southwest Hummus

Sweet Potato Hummus

Three Dips with Thai Flavors

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pizza Pimento Cheese

Pimento cheese has been a staple food down south for generations, and now it's becoming ubiquitous in other parts of the country. At least that's the way it seems to me, a Marylander. My state is technically south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but up here in Baltimore we are definitely not the South. Still, I see pimento cheese popping up on menus everywhere around town, put to use as a burger topping and even as an accompaniment for the unusual (but tasty) combination of fried oysters and waffles. And why not? It's delicious, and if you have the right ingredients on hand, simple to make.

While there is both cheese and pimentos (or roasted red peppers) in pimento cheese, mayonnaise is possibly the most important ingredient. Without it, it's difficult to get the cheese to spread. Duke's is the mayo to use, if you can find it, otherwise, use your favorite. Other than that, pimento cheese requires seasonings, which can be as simple as salt and pepper and a dash of hot sauce, or a bit more complicated with the addition of garlic and onion powders, maybe a bit of Worcestershire sauce. Chef Richard Blais' recipe strays from the South to the Southwest, with the addition of cilantro and poblano peppers. I bastardized the concept quite a bit when I added feta and harissa paste to make a Mediterranean-style pimento cheese, and now I'm going to do it again with my latest cheesy invention: Pizza Pimento Cheese.

Seemed like a no-brainer: add sundried tomatoes and pizza herbs, swap out the cheddar for mozzarella. Add pepperoni, too, because why not? and garnish with fresh basil and thyme. Toasts topped with this concoction made a perfect alternative to a hot grilled cheese sandwich when eaten with a bowl of chilled gazpacho on a hot summer day. And it tasted like pizza. What's not to like?

Pizza Pimento Cheese

8 sundried tomato halves
3 tablespoons softened cream cheese
1/4 cup Duke's mayonnaise
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped roasted red pepper or pimento
1/2 cup finely diced pepperoni
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Pinch cayenne pepper
Pinch dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Rehydrate the tomatoes by soaking them in boiling water until soft, about 15 minutes. Drain well and chop finely. Set aside.

Combine the cream cheese and mayo in a large bowl. Add the cheeses, pimento, pepperoni, and seasonings and stir well to combine. Alternately, you can pulse it a few times with a food processor. Stir in the chopped sundried tomato. Taste for seasonings and add more oregano or garlic if you feel it needs it.

Spread on lightly toasted bread. Top with fresh basil and thyme. You could also add more pepperoni, if you want.

Makes 3+ cups.

Tastes even better after a day or two in the fridge.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Mediterranean Pimento Cheese

Pimento cheese is a southern specialty. A fairly simple combination of shredded cheese, mayo, and chopped pimento or roasted red pepper, it's great slathered on everything from crackers to burgers. Not being particularly southern, I am willing to take liberties with the recipe and make it my own.

We had a jar of fairly mild harissa paste in the fridge looking for things to do. I decided to employ it in a pimento cheese that could hail from a land in the vicinity of the southeastern Mediterranean sea. Most pimento cheeses use cheddar as a base, but I wanted something more neutral so the feta cheese could be prominent. The harissa stands in for the pimentos, but you could certainly add red pepper to your cheese if you choose. Don't forget to add the herbs, which add more character to the salty cheese.

I spread it on ciabatta and topped it with an over-easy egg, and it was mmm! Next I'll use it on a lamb burger with lots of red onion and fresh tomato.

Mediterranean Pimento Cheese

4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, grated
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
2-3 teaspoons harissa paste (or to taste, depending on the strength of your harissa)
3 heaping tablespoons mayo
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint
1 teaspoon dill seeds, crushed

Combine all ingredients in a bowl until fairly homogenized in texture. There will still be small lumps of feta. Pack into a lidded container and refrigerate for several hours so the flavors can mellow. Serve with crackers or as a sandwich spread.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Savory Sweet Potato Biscones and Pimento Cheese

A recent delivery from our produce delivery service (it's not really a CSA, so I shouldn't call it that) left us with three mammoth sweet potatoes. Mr Minx isn't really a fan of the tuber, so I have to find creative ways to use them up. My sweet potato spaetzle were a hit, as was the super-moist sweet potato snack cake. He even enjoyed the sweet potato and black-eyed pea hummus I made a couple years back, and he's not a fan of the beans, either. This time, I decided to try sweet potato biscuits or scones, something that I could use as a sandwich bread.

I definitely didn't want the scones to be sweet, so didn't use any sugar. Instead, I leaned heavily toward the savory spectrum by adding chopped scallions and jalapeno pepper.

Ham biscuits are a classic, but I find that some biscuits are just too thick and dense to wrap around meat and cheese. Plus, they usually crumble into chunks after a few bites. I made mine thinner and somewhat lighter. They are somewhere between a biscuit and a scone, a biscone, and are easily fork split to accommodate a filling.

My filling of choice was pimento cheese and ham. Or more accurately, Canadian bacon. The rounds of bacon were the perfect size for the biscones, and matched nicely with the savory cheese topping.

Sweet Potato Biscones with Pimento Cheese

For the biscones:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons baking powder
5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup cold mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup milk
2 scallions, minced finely
1 jalapeno pepper, minced

For the pimento cheese:
4 ounces of extra sharp cheddar cheese
Scant 1/4 cup mayonnaise (I used Duke's)
1 tablespoon minced jalapeno pepper
2 tablespoons chopped roasted red pepper

Canadian bacon or ham, optional

Make the biscones: Preheat oven to 425°F.

Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl. Rub the butter in with your fingers until the flour looks like coarse meal. Combine the sweet potato and milk and stir into the flour mixture until mostly combined; then add the scallions and jalapeno and mix until completely combined and veg are fairly evenly distributed.

Flour your hands and pat dough out to about 1/2" thick on a flour-coated board. Use a floured glass or biscuit cutter to cut out rounds. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12-16 biscones, depending on how big a cutter you use.

Make the pimento cheese: Grate the cheddar into a bowl. Stir in the mayo and peppers. Beat well with a fork until the cheese starts to break apart and integrate with the mayo. (You could also whiz it in a food processor, but I didn't think it was worth dragging it out and getting it dirty for such a small amount.) Refrigerate until ready to use.

Fork split the biscones, smear with pimento cheese and top with a slice or two of Canadian bacon. Sliced tomato is nice, too. Eat.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

The Boathouse Canton

 (photo: Downtown Diane)

For two decades, the Bay Cafe used to be the place to hang out on the water in Canton. It's gone now, but its replacement, the Boathouse, looks like an even better place to be.

Owners Gene Singleton and Maureen McEnerney put quite a bit of money into renovating the building at Tindeco Wharf; the result is airy and modern, feeling like a place on the water should feel, without being overtly nautical. Al fresco dining on the new outdoor patio is the big draw in warm weather, but the food should be a draw all year long.

Chef Matt Campbell, a Virginia native, works hard to make sure the food he serves is what the customer wants to eat. This being Baltimore, that means plenty of seafood and lots of things that taste good with a tall drink in hand.

We were introduced to the Boathouse's fall menu at a media tasting, and were impressed with the food, the starters especially. We tasted the seared ahi tuna on won ton crisps, and loved the hint of sesame oil in the dressing. We also enjoyed the pimento cheese, a southern specialty that's not seen in these parts too often. Chef Campbell's version is packed into small crocks, baked to an appealing crustiness, and served with crostini and crudite.

Oysters  (photo: Downtown Diane)

The rest of our dinner spread included some very fresh oysters, both local and otherwise...

Chicken Chesapeake  (photo: Downtown Diane)

and interpretations of classic fare like chicken Chesapeake and steak frites.

The chicken Chesapeake included thin slices of prosciutto sandwiched between a moist chicken breast cutlet and a mini crab cake, the whole thing topped with an Old Bay Gruyere cream sauce. The steak dish featured hanger steak cooked to a rosy medium, served with crisp fries.

One of the more popular dishes we sampled, judging from the speed the dish disappeared from the buffet, was the lobster mac and cheese. In addition to nicely sized bites of lobster, the dish contains four cheeses, andouille sausage, plus peas and roasted tomatoes. It's got vegetables, so it's healthy, right?

Lobster Mac & Cheese (photo: Jess Mayhugh)

My favorite dish was the grilled salmon. The salmon itself was fine, but the accompanying pan-seared brussels sprouts with caramelized pearl onions, bacon lardons, and rosemary balsamic butter were So. Good. And, the sprouts are available by themselves, as a side dish. Gimme.

Steak frites, fried cod (the "fish" portion of fish and chips), chicken Chesapeake

We also sampled two desserts, the seasonal fruit crisp, which featured apples (but in the summer contains peaches), and what was billed as a flourless chocolate cake, but was more like a rich classic chocolate cake. Both were pleasant ways to add a sweet finish to our meal.

Flourless chocolate cakelets (photo: Downtown Diane)

Let's not forget the beverages here. We tasted a sangria made with rosé, ruby port, triple sec, and cinnamon spice syrup that was quite nice and a change from the normal. There are also about a dozen beers on draft, with selections from local breweries Union, Heavy Seas, and Brewer's Art, plus bottled selections, wines, and crushes in several flavors. All this, including food to please many palates, seems like a pretty good reason to check out the Boathouse.



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Posted on Minxeats.com.