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Ceci n’est pas un dip

By Ann | November 27, 2007

How do I love cookbooks? Let me count the ways… One of my favorite things is the glossy photography, the luscious, shiny, melty, colorful images of food that look better than anything I’ll ever make. I’ve only bought one cookbook because of its photographs (The Nantucket Table — a mistake) but I do often cook recipes because of the photos. Which is how I came to make Deceptively Delicious’s ranch dressing.

Author Seinfeld says she often sets out a plate of raw veggies and dip before supper to stave off the hunger pangs of her children, a trick I thought I could employ with Chris. Her recipe for ranch dressing sounded great — a puree of white beans, lowfat buttermilk, lowfat sour cream and garlic, flecked with parsley and parmesan cheese. More importantly, in the photo it looks delicious, thick and savory, perfect for dipping. (I wish I could show it to you, but I can’t find it online.) But after three seconds of blending the ingredients in my mini-prep food processor, I knew something was wrong. This is a salad dressing, folks, good for drizzling over lettuce. Actually, it would make a quite nice tangy, cold soup. But dip, it is not.

Score:
Tasters: 1
Deceived: 0

Topics: Cooking the Books | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “Ceci n’est pas un dip”

  1. bob Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 12:15 am

    You can thicken any salad dressing and make it into a dip by adding just a little xanthan, which you can purchase at any good specialty food market. Xanthan is a microbial thickening agent which comes as a powder and is stirred directly into whatever you want to thicken, just shake and let it sit in the fridge for five minutes. As far as I know, it is not digestible and adds no calories to your food. I often use it when I make a thin salad dressing; it helps stick the dressing to the lettuce to give better flavoring.

  2. The Hauses Says:
    December 1st, 2007 at 8:56 am

    I make a buttermilk peppercorn dip from the Martha Stewart Hors D’oeuvres, and it always gets a good response. It doesn’t have anything blended into it, but it’s VERY good. Recipe:

    1 cup sour cream
    2 tbsp. buttermilk
    1 tsp. coarsely ground mixed peppercors (black, pink, and green)
    2 tsp. minced chives
    1/2 tsp. finely chopped fresh thyme (you can use thyme from a spice jar instead if you don’t have any)
    1 large shallot
    1/2 tsp. kosher salt.

    Place all in a medium bowl and stir to combine. Martha says to serve immediately or store in a refrigerator up to 48 hours.

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