With the holidays descending upon us faster than a souffle falls in a cold draft, we get to start thinking about entertaining. Not just making a pasta dinner for you and a few friends, but really entertaining a crowd. Like with cocktails and wine and cheese and...dip.
Dips get sort of a crinkled nose when mantioned around my house. We've always associated "dip" with "sour cream and onion" for potato chips and Ranch dressing for celery sticks. Dips are okay for the Superbowl along with chicken wings and nachos, but they aren't very classy for a little holiday cocktail party.
Unless they're Mediterranean-style dips and spreads, like well-known hummus, increasingly popular baba ghanouj, and my most recent discovery, taramosalata, a Greek appetizer spread made with breadcrumbs (or mashed potatoes), milk, olive oil, lemon juice, onions, and tarama.
Tarama is Greek carp roe that runs from a pale peach color to bright pinkish red. Normally, I don't jump at fish eggs in any form whether they are uber-luxurious caviar, tobiko at the sushi bar, or otherwise. But after trying the creamy, salty taramosalata for the first time, I forgot about the whole "fish egg thing" and gobbled it up by the spoonful.
If you're going to do dips for your party, put out hummus and baba ghannouj with some pita bread, and introduce your friends to taramosalata.
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