Smoked Whitefish Dip

I lived in NYC for a summer on the Upper West Side. At that time, I didn’t cook because I had ten short weeks to take in all that the city had to offer. I knew I wouldn’t be moving there long-term, so I had to take advantage of the time I had. One of my favorite snacks in my neighborhood was the whitefish dip from Zabar’s. I could finish the container with some pita chips in one sitting. Costco also sells a 1 lb tub that is a bit much, so when I got the craving today, I figured it out for myself.

You can use any smoked fish for this recipe, but I used trout. I was home alone for the weekend and ended up finishing the entire batch in about 24 hours.

Peach Salsa

A few weeks ago, we had friends over for taco night. I made a batch of carnitas, tacos al pastor (which I’ll share with you in another post), pickled carrots & jalapenos, crunchy tomatillo-avocado salsa and peach salsa.

Peach salsa may sound a little weird but I wanted something different. I thought a fruity salsa would go well with the tacos al pastor (I was totally right) and it was prime peach season. Sadly, peach season is almost over but there’s always next year…

Birthday Feast #1: Jalapeno Popper Dip

Last weekend was my boyfriend’s birthday. To celebrate, I thought he’d enjoy some comfort foods  that he doesn’t often get living with a Vietnamese Californian. Our standard weekday meals are kitchen sink salads, soups or noodles. Creamy dips are usually relegated to the Super Bowl or other milestone sporting events where I know other people will help us enjoy the gluttony. Potatoes almost never make it into the rotation unless I am thickening a soup in lieu of cream. Dessert? I definitely make bake but dessert around here is usually whatever fruit is in season.

In forthcoming posts, you will see a baked potato casserole, roast pork loin, a Roli Roti-style porchetta, caramelized onions, and a peanut butter pie. The food isn’t very well documented as we had friends and family over while I was finishing up. Much like I don’t like to spend too much time documenting food when I eat out, I would much rather spend time chatting with friends than taking the perfect photo (or any at all, in some cases).

Spicy Parsley Hummus (from dried chickpeas)

I read somewhere that the best hummus is made from dried chickpeas (not canned) and I now have to agree. We’ve made hummus before from canned chickpeas and though it was good, it was never great.

This batch originated from dried chickpeas (from Berkeley Bowl) and I have to admit it isn’t much harder…you just have to remember to soak the chickpeas overnight. Or maybe my new 9-cup processor just makes it easier to make a big batch of hummus than in my mini food processor, when everything would inevitably overflow. Whatever it is, we’ve found our hummus mojo.

Since Joel likes spicy hummus, we threw in a serrano pepper which wasn’t spicy enough…so we added chili pepper powder and chili pepper flakes to bring up the heat. I also had parsley leftover from the pasta puttanesca and added two fistfuls of that to the food processor.

Whiskey Chicken Liver Pate

For my family’s Tet celebration last weekend, I brought pate, cheese and sliced baguettes. I grew up eating a lot of pate and several years ago, my parents sent me a recipe for Vietnamese pate that I never got around to making…until now. I pulled out the recipe but one of the ingredients was indecipherable (the only translation was fog…I asked my aunt who originally sent the recipe and she had no idea either!) So I found a simple recipe online.

Adjustments: I don’t drink bourbon but I do drink whiskey so used that instead. Next time, I would at least double (maybe even triple) the black pepper and add a pinch more salt. Vietnamese pate is very peppery and I missed that flavor in this version.

It makes quite a bit of pate…we had about 40 people over and a little over half of that container was eaten. I also had a small container at home.

p.s. It kind of made my dishwasher smell like wet dog but the taste is worth it!