Dip It!

The weather being the best conversation starter there is, let me just tell you that I have nothing but complaints on it. It’s been a continuation of winter for about as long as spring has officially started.

As much as we WANT to buy spring fare, what I really want to EAT are stews and roasts and real mac’n’cheese.

The produce vendors however, are plowing on and trying to convince us of the season by offering asparagus, rhubarb and (globe) artichokes. And because I am a sucker for marketing, i fell into their terrible ploy (for the third time, might I add!), caved and bought artichokes.

As a child I have never been incredibly fond of artichokes, and a bout of stomach flu a few years back left a truly terrible memory involving the lovely thistle hearts(variation, a pseudo-writers best friend!) paired with spaghetti, and I will leave the rest to your imagination. I mainly got them at the markthalle because my toddler boy is absolutely in love with dipping. Dipping for him, is food at it’s funnest (as opposed to funnIEST). i figured therefore, that artichokes (how many times will I type artichokes in this post, hmm? well, better read on and count!) were a nice change and a bit of fun for the rainy dinners.

The artichokes were steamed and I served them with two dips: a variation on the classic italian salsa verde – a green sauce (my linguistics skills are unparalleled) made with fresh herbs, capers and anchovies – for the husband and me, and a surefire winner for all of us, which is a tahini-yoghurt sauce spiced with ras-el-hanout (a very fragrant north african spice/herb mix including cumin, fenugreek, coriander and mild chili, to name a few).

Artichokes with Double Dip

prep time: 5 min/dip and 40 min total for the artichokes

For the Artichokes

count one artichoke per person

pot with a steamer inlay or a pressure cooker fitted with a steamer inside.

Cut of the long Stem of the artichokes to about 1/2 cm of the globe. Chop pf the tips of leaves with scissors or simply cut a couple of cms of the top. Place in a bowl of cold water with a splash of lemon to prevent them from turning black.

When you are ready to cook, place the artichokes ionside the steamer basket and steam them for about 15-20 min or until tender. Reduce the cooking time appropriately if you are steaming them in a pressure cooker ( my guess would be about 10 min after the cooker is starting to vent steam)

Serve the artichokes hot or cold. to eat, pull out the leaves and dip them into a classic vinaigrette, or even just olive oil and lemon or this, or whatever else you like. To eat the artichoke heart, pull or cut out the hairy fuzzy part, the heart is what lies underneath.

For the Salsa Verde

4 tbsp olive oil or more
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp mint
1 tbsp flat leaf parsley
1 tbsp cilantro (optional)
1 tbsp capers (either salted or brined, be sure to rinse the salted ones well!)
3-4 anchovies, packed in oil or salt (again, if salted, make sure to rinse them well)
splash of lemon juice, or more to taste

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and whizz together until it all comes together. Alternately, you can chopp up the herbs, capers and anchovies finely and blend with the lemon juice and the olive oil. Your sauce needs to look green, and solid, between a vinaigrette and a pesto.

For the Yoghurt-Tahini Sauce

1 tbsp tahini (sesame butter)
1/2 cup of yoghurt
juice of one lime/lemon
1 tsp mint
1 tsp ras-el-hanout

salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together all the ingredients and let stand for a little while. The tahini will cause the sauce to thicken slightly. If you find it a little to runny, add some more of the sesame butter.

Both sauces/dips will keep covered in the fridge for a few days, but make sure to check because mint can sometimes cause dishes to go bad quickly.

Peanuts

I don’t know where to begin with this other than to say that this is the sauce to replace all sauces for any asian dish, salads and other dips. You can add it to something healthy (like a tofu stir fry*) or slather it on something like fries or dip stuff — or cars, according to my older boy, because cars are pretty much the answer to everything these days!.

You can play around with proportions depending on how spicy you like it, adding more chilies, milk or coconut milk instead of water to thin it, adding in some chopped peanuts, cilantro or whatever other flavors you enjoy.
The essence of this recipe seems to be: I made peanut sauce, I hope you like it. Figure it out on your own! Does it seem lately that my recipes are vague? Hmm, anyone else but me, got the feeling I am being lazy here? Well,if so I am sorry and offer this as an explanation: I am starting work in a few weeks after a year on maternity leave and am feeling like everything around me is coming to a crashing halt before some wort of explosion occurs!

This sauce did make me feel better though, so that’s a start!

Peanut Sauce

prep time: 5 min tops

about 4 tbsp peanut butter**
2 tbsp water
1 small dried chili
1 cm fresh gingerpeeled and grated
splash of soy sauce
juice of 1 lime
a few drops or more toasted sesame oil

Mix all the ingredients together in a saucepan, heating it up gently until it comes together. You can add more liquid if you want your sauce to be thinner, or less if you want it more as a spread/dip.

* The stir fry you see in the picture is simply green onions heated up with sunflower oil in the wok, cubed tofu added in and fried until slightly crispy and raw broccoli florets, tossed in at the last minute. I added a splash of lime juice to keep the green color of the raw broccoli.

**I use natural peanut butter, which is basically pure peanuts, ground to a paste. It has no additives, salt, sugar or other oils in it and it’s a source of good proteins and fat. In Europe, you can find it in health food stores and just like ‘normal’ PB, it comes in creamy or crunchy versions. Of course, you could also use regular ‘american style’ peanut butter if you prefer. This kind is super-processed and not very good for you, the taste is a little more kind though!