Dip dip dip

It is hot here. The weather forecast keeps promising us rain... tomorrow. It's always "tomorrow". And it stays this way. In my quest for summer recipes that don't turn my kitchen into a sauna, I have turned to dips. I made a little more variety than usual as we had guests yesterday. There was the trusty guacamole, as well as the eggplant caviar, and then some more. I made another trusty preparation, almond tapenade from this blog, translated here for your convenience.

Clockwise from top left : eggplant caviar,
humus, tuna-hazelnut spread, tapenade

Almond tapenade

1/2 cup almond butter

1/2 cup green olives, pitted

Rinse the olives in running water, mix everything together. You can add more or less almond paste depending on your taste. If the tapenade is a little too thick, add a dash of olive oil.

Then I got a little bit more experimental, and I tried my hand at something I'd never done before : humus. I only had a can of chick pas. I'd have preferred the dry kind (as the humus turned out a bit salty for my taste), but well... you do with what you have.

Vegan humus

1 can chick peas (garbanzo beans)

1 cup oat cream

1 clove garlic

2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (okay, it was frozen coriander, my usual seller wasn't at the market lately)

1 tbsp tahini

Blend together using your mixer until smooth.

I was not so convinced right out of the bowl, the taste was better after  few hours in the fridge. A lot better, considering how many servings the guests took.

Lastly I was craving something with salmon. But I had no smoked salmon, could not find any at the store I went to, and the smoked salmon spread recipe I had involved fresh cheese anyway.This is were I got very experimental, and I must say, it worked !

Tuna-hazelnut spread

1 1/2 cup whole hazelnuts

1 can tuna (8 oz or so)

1 cup oat cream

1/2 oat milk

In a mixing bowl, blend the hazelnuts into a fine power. Keep blending and let the hazelnut power get a little warm. Add the rest of the ingredients and keep blending until you get a smooth cream.

I served everything with grilled spare ribs, sticks of red bell pepper, cucumber, endive and fresh bread. It was very good and I had leftovers for the next day. I will definitely keep tweaking the humus and tuna recipes, I'm sure they can be improved. I'll edit this post if I turn to a better version.

Spread the beet

I adore red beet. Cooked in stews, mashed, or diced into fresh salads all year round. My husband usually does not care for it, but we did find one recipe that he loved. It was a spread, and it involved mixing the beat with fresh goat cheese. That wouldn't do in our house. I thought about it for a bit, decided to try something out and... bingo ! It worked AND the home geek loved it.

The best part is that it is super quick and easy to make, as long as you have an immersion blender and can buy the red beet already cooked (if not, peel it, dice it and use your pressure cooker, red beets takes a rather long time to cook).

Vegan red beet spread

1 cooked red beet

2 teaspoons tahini (sesame paste)

3 teaspoons almond paste

1 or 2 garlic clove(s)

Peel and dice the red beet, peel the garlic. Put all ingredients in your mixing bowl and mix until they have blended into a soft, purple paste. Serve cold over fresh bread, or as a dip.

Caviar...

Not real caviar, no, I'm not that full of cash to cook anything with it. I must even admit I've never tried it. But I do make eggplant caviar on a regular basis. You can eat it as a dip, or as a spread. We generally eat a few mouthfuls over a little bit of fresh white bread.

I have to give credit where it's due, though, and say that I didn't personally make this one. It was made by my dear friend Eysméralda - but it still fits the title of this blog, and I wouldn't have made it much differently.

I know it's not the traditional way to cook it - usually, one would roast the eggplants in the oven. I tried. I burnt my fingers removing the meat from the skin. And there was one casualty. The first time I cooked this, I killed my oven. I had forgotten to cut off the ends of the eggplants before roasting them. They exploded, taking the door of the oven with them.

Okay, the door still hung to the oven. But it never agreed to close again.
For the love of quick cooking, preserving my fingers (the skin stays tender enough to be blended with the rest), and functioning ovens, I turned to the pressure cooker.

The caviar (on top)
with bread and cucumber-paprika salad

Caviar d'aubergines

4 or 5 eggplants

2 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

a few leaves fresh coriander

olive oil

salt

Wash and dice the eggplants, put them in your beloved pressure cooker and cook until they're tender. By the sight of my nose, that should be something like 20 minutes.

Cut, peal and hack the garlic and herbs.

Put the eggplants and oil into a bowl and use a hand mixer to turn them into a somewhat smooth paste - don't worry if its not perfectly smooth, it doesn't have to be perfect to taste good ! Add the garlic and herbs. Serve cold. Or hot if you're very hungry and don't have the time to wait until it's completely cooled.

Now, there are dozens of way to prepare this. You can mix up spices and herbs, add lemon... Try a few things out and find what you like best ! You can cook a lot of the caviar, and keep it in the fridge for a few days.