On Dips
And why I love yogurt so freakin' much.
Welcome to our very first paid-subscriber only situation! Please know that there is a hard stop ahead, which I know can be annoying, but it’s either this or endless pop-up ads on a website, so here we are.
Whether as an inheritance from my grandmothers, both relentlessly gracious hostesses, or as a result of some sort of learned manic behavior, I cannot stand when people arrive at my house to an empty table. There must be, at the very least, a carb, a dip, and some fresh veggies. Maybe a snack mix! Ideally a thoughtfully-chosen wine. Some good olives if they’ll appreciate them. But a dip is a non-negotiable.
A dip, to me, indicates that something about our gathering is a little bit special. After all, dips are not something I put out on any old weeknight. Dips are for carrots that I have cut into beautiful shapes instead of gnawing on them whole like Bugs. Dips are for cocktail napkins instead of torn-up paper towels. Dips create an air of occasion, a special little je ne sais quoi, a slight “how do I eat this gracefully” sort of panic until our guests see that in this house, we all dip together into the same bowl.
All of this says to my guests: you are here in my home, and that occasion is special enough to be celebrated with a condiment that I thought about and made ahead of time just for you, a person with whom I do not mind sharing the amount of germs we will exchange in this bowl of not-quite-liquid stuff. Are dips my love language? It appears they are.
And though I channel Martha and Ina and Julia and all of the other queens of entertaining at whose alters we worship, there are times when I realize, about 15 minutes before the buzzer makes my cat jump three feet in the air, that I have no dip at the ready. And that, dear reader, is when I whip this recipe out in triumph and live to dip another day.
This recipe is also my love letter to yogurt, which I hated as a child due in no small part to this abomination, but have now come to love passionately at all times of day. Morning, noon, and night, she is there, and with a few simple ingredients, she dolls right up to be the dip your impromptu gathering needs. Please, I beg of you: buy a large carton of full-fat, PLAIN (important!) Greek yogurt every time you are at the grocery store from here on out. You will thank me, after your first emergency dip situation, and then again when you realize that yogurt is everything.
Now, we dip. But first! A quick poll:
This is a two-part recipe (gasp!). The first, my take on the ubiquitous chili crisp oil, is completely and totally optional. To be honest with you, the peeling of the shallots is such a pain in the eyeballs that these days, I’d rather pop open a jar that I bought at the store. Everyone saw my plug for the mouth-watering Nam Prik Pao by Pink Salt, right? That would be perfect here.
The second recipe, if you can call it that, is just a humble recipe that you can adapt to fit whatever you have on hand (important!), which may or may not include the chili crisp. Again, no judgment from me.
Chili Crisp Oil
1 cup of a neutral oil like vegetable or canola
2 medium shallots, peeled and sliced thinly
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced thinly
3 TBSP of whole fennel seeds
1 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp of cumin seeds
1/4 cup of sesame seeds (Don’t have these or any of the other spices above? No sweat. You do you!)
3 bay leaves, optional
1 tsp of kosher salt
Find a nice, medium-sized sauté pan, and add the neutral oil. Put your pan over a medium-low heat (I'm talking like 3.5 on a scale of 10), and add the shallots.
Let the shallots hang out for a bit, without stirring them, until they're starting to look sort of dehydrated. This usually takes about five to eight minutes. Add the garlic, give the pan a swish to shake things up a little (jazz hands), then walk away.
That whole shallot / garlic situation needs to sit by itself for a while until everything is a little dehydrated but not quite brown.
Give everything a stir, then let the mixture cook for about five more minutes, turning the heat down if things are getting too hot and heavy.
In one fell swoop, add the fennel, red pepper flakes, cumin, sesame seeds, and bay leaves.
Stir everything, then turn the heat up just slightly to a medium heat.
In a very short amount of time, things will start to get crispy and brown. This is where you turn off the heat, add the salt, and then let things cool and proceed to dip (or pizza, pasta, a spoon, etc.).
The Dip (dare I call it that?) in action!
The Dip
2 cups of full-fat Greek yogurt (feel free to substitute with dairy-free yogurt, but make sure it’s a full-fat situation)
3 TBSP of lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
herbs, sometimes
pepitas, on occasion
olive oil, for sure
This isn’t rocket science: grab a big ol’ mixing bowl, and stir the yogurt and lemon juice together until smooth.
Taste and then add salt and pepper until you’re happy with it. If you’re adding the chili crisp oil on top, remember that that has salt in it too. Dump the yogurt mixture into your serving vehicle.
Top with any or all of the following: fresh cut herbs, chili crisp oil, pepitas, glugs and glugs of peppery olive oil, grated lemon zest, capers, everything bagel seasoning, etc.
Serve with fresh vegetables, sourdough crackers, or spoons (I jest!).
I hope you enjoy this spicy, crunchy dip. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being a paid member of the Page & Plate 2.0 community! More wonderful things to come in the future because of people like you. Do I sound like PBS yet? I can only hope.
