Celebrating Latin Food: Tostones Rellenos "When you think it is perfect, i...

Celebrating Latin Food: Tostones Rellenos "When you think it is perfect, i...: "Tostones or Patacones, whatever the name it is a dish which has crossed over in the food world. I'll leave it up to the Simple Chef™, with ..."

Blue Cheese Dip for Buffalo Wings

 Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
• salt and pepper

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients; chill for an hour or two. Serve as a dip for the Buffalo wings (see below).  Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

Chicken wings with delicious blue cheese dip.

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds chicken wings
• salt and pepper
• oil for deep frying
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup hot pepper sauce
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar  

 Preparation:

Instructions for Buffalo wings.
Sprinkle chicken wings with salt and pepper. Heat oil in deep fryer to 370°. Fry wings in batches until crispy and cooked, about 10 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain; keep warm. In a small saucepan, melt butter; stir in hot sauce and vinegar. Pour over wings and toss to coat wings thoroughly. Serve Buffalo wings with the Blue Cheese Dip and Anchor Bar Buffalo Chicken Wing Sauce - Medium Recipe


   

Spicy Bean Salsa

By: Susan Navarrete   "Serve with tortilla chips. Very addicting!"
 
Ingredients

1 (15 ounce) can black-eyed peas
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

1 (4 ounce) can diced jalapeno peppers

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
1 cup Italian-style salad dressing
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine black-eyed peas, black beans, corn, onion, green bell pepper, jalapeno peppers and tomatoes. Season with Italian-style salad dressing and garlic salt; mix well. Cover, and refrigerate overnight to blend flavors.

 
Servings: 12

Deviled Dip

Photographs by Antonis Achilleos

Recipe courtesy Food Network Magazine, for 50 Game-Day Dips

Directions

Puree 8 hard-boiled eggs with 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon mustard, 1 chopped pickle, a dash of hot sauce, and paprika, salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chives.

Serve in a bowl and add toasted french or italian bread.

11 Layer Dip

Photo by Nick

Just when we thought there could be no more layers on, here is the 11 Layer Dip courtesy of Foodista.

Ingredients

1 large can 16 oz. refried beans

2 cups sour cream

4 small cans chopper or sliced olives

2 cups diced tomatoes

4 small cans 4 oz. can diced green chilies, drained

2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

¾ cup Jack cheese

2  whole avacados mashed

1 packet packet taco seasoning mix

1 bunch green onions

1 bunch cilantro

Preparation

Step 1

Mix refried beans with the taco seasoning mix and heat through to bubbling, spread on the bottom of a serving bowl, let cool to room temperature. Chop finely green onions white part and stems, spread over beans mixture. Spread chopped tomatos over onions. Drain chilis and spread over tomatos. Spread olives over tomatos. Spread avacado mash over olives. Spread cheese over avacado, Spread sour cream over cheese. Strip cilantro leaves from stem and chop, spread over the sour cream.

Zucchini Cheese Spread Served With Artisan Bread

Courtesty Foodista

Photo: Angie's Recipes

This zucchini cheese spread is extremely easy to make. Spread it on your favourite artisan bread or use as a sandwich filler or serve it in place of hummus.

Ingredients

150 grams Zucchini

1 clove Garlic

150 grams Fresh cheese (see recommended cheese below)

1 tablespoon Parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons Olive oil
Lemon zest of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparation

Step 1
Rinse, dry and finely grate the zucchini. Mince the garlic.

Step 2

Place the fresh cheese, grated zucchini, parsley, olive oil, minced garlic, and lemon zest together in a bowl. Mix well. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. Now it is ready to spread on your favorite artisan bread.

About Cheese

Brick cheese is a semi-hard, cow's milk cheese originating in Wisconsin, you can purchase Brick Cheese by Wisconsin Cheese Mart. It was developed by John Joo in 1877.  The cheese has a number of small and irregular holes and an open texture.  The flavor is a mixture of sweet, spicy and nutty. As it ripens, it has a heady aroma and becomes almost as strong as limburger.  The name brick cheese is said to have come from the fact that bricks were once used to weight the curd and press out the whey.

Physical Description

Brick cheese is a medium-soft cheese that crumbles easily and is somewhat sticky to the knife. When young, brick cheese has a mild, sweet flavor. As it ages, brick cheese develops a more ripe, and strong.   Brick cheese is named for the shape it's made in, either a rectangular, or square brick.  Typically pale yellow to white in color.

Grilled Garlic Eggplant Dip

Courtesy Foodista

Ingredients

3  eggplants

1  garlic head

Olive oil as needed

Kosher or sea salt to taste
¼  cup minced parsley
Freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Preparation

Step 1

Wash and dry eggplants. Peel garlic and set aside. If the cloves are very large, cut in half. Make multiple 1/2-inch slits in the eggplant and stud with garlic. Push towards the center of the eggplant so the garlic is not sticking out. When done, coat eggplant with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Step 2

Place in the center of the cooking grate until the eggplants have collapsed and are soft. You will need to turn occasionally. This will take approximately 30 minutes, depending on the size of the eggplants.

Step 3

When very soft, cut in half and scrape flesh and garlic from skin. Mash with a fork and mix in enough olive oil to make creamy. Season with salt, pepper and parsley. Serve with pita wedges or flatbread.

Galil Fried Eggplant, 14-Ounce Cans (Pack of 12)

Sesame-Tofu Dip

Courtesy Foodista

Ingredients

8  ounces silken tofu

2  tablespoons lemon juice

1  tablespoon sesame oil

pkt sugar substitute

teaspoon salt

cup canola oil

Preparation

Step 1

In a food processor, blend tofu, lemon juice, sesame oil, sugar substitute and salt until smooth. With processor on, slowly add canola oil in a steady stream until incorporated. Mixture should have consistency of thick mayonnaise.

Step 2

This recipe yields 6 servings.

Step 3

Description: "If you miss hummus (Middle Eastern chickpea spread), try this easy, flavorful dip. It also makes a terrific sauce for grilled chicken or fish."

Pastica De Jamon

Pastica is a collection of "Spreadable Ideas". Pastica's story goes back to when I was a young boy. My mother would always have some sort of snack ready for me when I came home from school, whether it was a quick blt, a hot dog, hamburger or my favorite Pastica!. Like most immigrants to this great United States, our families always looked for simple, inexpensive, yet delicious snacks. Many of these snacks today may fall under the heading "comfort food", but let's face it we all love the comfort food.

My favorite pastica (also known as "dip") was a quick fill of deviled ham and philly cream cheese. Whip this up with a fork, put it between to slices of white Wonder bread - and my god....what a treat. Sometimes the deviled ham was not available, so my mother always found an alternative: put a couple of hot dogs in the blender and whip them up, open a can of Vienna Sausage (or as we call them "salchichas") and whip those up or possibly even a few slices of ham, from time to time Spam was used...not my favorite for pastica. In the end you had a great snack from Pastica.

By now you are wondering what the recipe is, well, as with most moms in our hispanic culture, many of the recipes are not written down. I learned how to make Pastica my looking at my mother, what I saw was to combination of a can of deviled ham, block of cream cheese then it got real interesting - it was a spoonful of this and a pinch of that....and then a quick test....and then another pinch of that and this....and then another taste, Perfect!

So the founding of Pastica for me can go back to 1966 when I was four years old and my first recollection of eating Pastica. Over the years I have continued to enjoy Pastica in many ways - from using it in a sandwhich, serving it as a party dip or simply keeping some in the frig for those days you want some comfort food with a nice bag of chips and a good movie to settle in for the night. Of course, lets not forget a nice beverage to accompany the Pastica: I'll leave the choice of beverage to individual taste.

Over the years I have perfected what I consider to be the ultimate Pastica: smooth, tasty, spreadable, not too heavy, not too lite, just right...enjoyable as a dip or finger sandwhich. The recipe is complete!

2010 is the birth of Pastica! We are currently working on a full product line that will tantalize all the taste buds. For those who desire to be more health conscious, we are working on the same greate taste but with less calories and fat....our goal is for everyone to enjoy Pastica, but we will not compromise taste or add artificial stuff - that would be worse than the fat or calories.

We hope to launch Pastica.com by December 31, 2010. We are also working on SpreadableIdeas.com which is another one of our web spaces which will offer a platform for everyone to share ideas, primarily about food, but the limits to the ideas will only be limited by those who share them. As with all new ideas on the web you never know where it leads.

While we continue to develop Pastica, we hope you all enjoy our blog. Please share your ideas, recipes, books, whatever you like to talk about, if it's about food - I'm listening. You see any changes you would like to make, let me know...want to become a publisher, let me know...just let me know.

Pastica's mission is to provide delicious ideas for anything that can be dipped, spread or savoured with a bread, cracker, vegetable, chip or other delectable food dipping tool (Yep, a new utensil "delectable food dipping tool"). Pastica has been developed from a great spread idea to a community of spreadable ideas that travel the web without limits reaching out to each individual's ideas, taste buds, imagination, cravings, thoughts, wishes and dreams.




Visit our sister site to learn more about Pastica "Spreadable Ideas" and the wonderful dip and spread recipes we have. Pastica!