Day 229 - Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Dip and Walnut-Mushroom Pâté

Hey there! Remember me? Yup, I disappeared for a bit, but I'm back!

A few months ago, I was cast in a show, rehearsals for which required every bit of my spare time and energy, so I put my cooking on hold for a spell, until the show was up and running. And now that it is, I'm happy to be back in the kitchen with I&T and you all!

The aforementioned show is Murder for Two, playing though August 25 at Second Stage Uptown. It blends murder mystery, musical comedy, and crazy hijinks, with a cast of two, including me and today's special guest taster, the insanely talented and adorable Brett Ryback!

Brett and I were offered a pair of tickets to the Shakespeare in the Park production of Love's Labours Lost, so we made plans to have a picnic beforehand, which gave me a great excuse to pull out the cookbook and make some spreads!

Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Dip

Well, this packs a tomato wallop! Two cups of dried tomatoes are reconstituted for this recipe, then added to 1/2 cup of ground almonds and 1/2 cup of white beans and pureed with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt and pepper. Now that's 4 parts tomato to 1 part almonds and 1 part beans. The flavor here is a tad overwhelming, I have to say, maybe nice as an accent on a sandwich, but as a dip, it's almost hard to take. I think if the beans had been ramped up and the tomatoes reduced, this would have been more palatable.

I did the basil variation because it's summer and basil is so plentiful. Alas, the basil got lost in the tomato tornado.

SFO: 9
Safe for omnivores, but not for those with sensitive taste buds.


Walnut-Mushroom Pâté

We liked this one much better. The woodsiness of the mushrooms worked great in combination with the ground, toasted walnuts. And the nut and bean to mushroom ratio was much more even here. This is a really well-designed recipe, and quite easy to prepare, assuming you have a food processor. Again, the salt in the recipe is modest, and I had to add more to bring the flavor of the spread to life, but come to life it did. 

I'm not sure if pâté is the best word for the consistency I ended up with. It really behaved more like a spread or dip.

Now this, I would make again.

SFO: 10