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.

Eggplant: More Than 75 Delicious RecipesStep 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."


Tofu 1-2-3Morinu Soft Tofu, Silken, 12-Ounce Packages (Pack of 12)

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!

Great Party Dips  Dip It! Great Party Food to Spread, Spoon, and Scoop  Delicious Dips

Muir Glen® Salsa Guacamole

By: Muir Glen

"Guests will rave about this combination of fire roasted salsa and guacamole--you'll make it again and again!"
Ingredients

Salsa:

1 (14.5 ounce) can Muir Glen® organic fire roasted or plain diced tomatoes, well drained
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 small fresh jalapeo chile, seeded, finely chopped
Molcajete - Authentic Mexican Mortar and PestleGuacamole:

3 large ripe avocados, pitted, peeled
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper sauce
1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Directions

1.In medium bowl, stir together salsa ingredients.
2.In another medium bowl, place avocados; coarsely mash. Stir in remaining guacamole ingredients. Spoon guacamole into shallow serving bowl; top with salsa.
3.Serve with tortilla chips as desired.

Footnotes

Did You Know? Look for avocados that are firm, but yield to gentle pressure. If they are not quite ripe, place avocados in a paper bag, and let ripen at room temperature.  Molcajete - Authentic Mexican Mortar and Pestle

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All of us at Pastica use Restaurant.comand recommend it.  Restaurant.com Gift Certificates: Save up to 60% off your next meal!