The World's Best Spinach Artichoke Dip

A friend was coming over to my house for a day of hanging out, playing cards, laughing, and of course, eating.  I had decided rather than going out, I’d cook something for us.  The something I decided on was spinach artichoke dip.  Who doesn’t love that, right?  Well, little did I know, when I was throwing the ingredients into the bowl, just how fabulous it would be.  Oh my… there are no words for the delight of that gooey, cheesy, goodness.  The first bite was to die for, and yet somehow, it just got better from there.  If you follow this recipe to the letter, I guarantee it will be the best spinach artichoke dip you have ever tasted. 

Here’s what you’ll need:  (Oops… mayo isn’t in the picture)

1 package of cream cheese, softened
¼ cup mayo
1 ½ cups smoked cheddar
¾ cup Parmigiano Reggiano (not that stuff in a green can)
3 cups baby spinach
3 artichoke bottoms
3 – 4 green onions

I know I’ve said this before, but I’m going to say it again anyway.  Please, please, PLEASE buy good cheese for something like this.  Yeah, you’re going to have to pay more for it, but it makes all the difference in the world. 

Alright, let’s get started, shall we? 

Let’s talk artichokes first.  Artichokes are one thing I do tend to use from a can.  The truth is I'm just too lazy to go to all the work it takes to get an artichoke to this point.  I didn’t have a can for the picture because I was using the second half of a can I’d already opened a few days before.  You should be able to get them in your grocery store with the rest of the canned artichokes.  I prefer the bottoms over the hearts.  Three of them will be plenty here.  This is what they look like when they come out of the can. 

Dice them fairly small, followed by the green onions, and set them aside. 

Next comes the spinach.  We need to get rid of some of its water before we throw it in with the cheese.  I think the easiest way is to just throw it into a pan over medium heat and stir it around until it’s wilted.

It’ll shrink down a lot as it wilts. 

When it looks like this, scoop it out of the pan, chop it roughly.

Set it aside with the other veg and we’ll start on the cheese.  Oh, this is also a good time to preheat your oven to 350° 

If you haven’t grated your cheese yet, go ahead and do it now, setting aside ¼ cup of each of them.  Drop the cream cheese into a mixing bowl, and beat it until it’s smooth.  Add the mayo and cream them together. 

Add the cheeses (not the ¼ cups you set aside) along with some salt and pepper and stir.

Next comes the veg. 

When everything is combined nicely, spread the mixture into a small casserole dish or other oven safe dish. 

Sprinkle with reserved cheese and pop it into the oven for about 25 minutes. 

It will look mouthwatering and golden around the edges when you pull it out. 

It’ll be really hard to do, but allow it to cool for at least five minutes before serving.  When you can wait no longer, scoop more than you’d ever think a normal person could eat into a dish (you’ll still want more, even though it won’t possibly fit in your stomach) and serve it with a sliced baguette.  

  
You'll never want the crap from (insert chain restaurant here) again.   

Cooking Green

Okay, so we totally dropped the ball on the St. Patrick's Day green beer and soda bread thing. Me, I'm not Irish anymore. I thought I was until last year when I found out that my paternal grandfather wasn't an Irish osteopath, but an American conman who did time in Ohio State Pen then went on to have a less than glamourous career as an amateur boxer before moving to Canada and wooing my grandmother with various and assorted tales, none of which were true.

And though I did grow up in a household that served boiled potatoes and soda bread on a regular basis, I never managed to develop a taste for them. Besides, neither of them are green.

The green in this recipe comes mainly from cilantro. It's a bright leafy herb with a flavour that is either loved or hated. Me, I love it. It's crisp, sharp, and just tastes... fresh. Apparently something like 30% of the population thinks it tastes like soap. Those people need to look away. They can check out Taneasha's mac and cheese (contains green onion and served with asparagus), or try my lime (green!) and ginger scones.

Green leafy things are super healthy; they contain fibre, iron, magnesuim, anti-oxidants, and most importantly for this recipe: things that lower cholesterol. Which is good, because coconut milk contains yummy saturated fats.

Green Thai Curry

This recipe makes enough for two, maybe three, or two and a bit for lunch the next day, but the pics are of a double recipe, which I made and froze (so that I'd have food on hand during finals next month)

What you need:

(note to self: you need to remember to take pics of all the ingredients!!)

• 3 Thai chiles (um, or more if you like things really spicy. I like things really spicy)
• ¼ C red onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 inch chunk of ginger
• 1 stalk lemongrass
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 1 C cilantro (with stems)
• 3 ½ T fish sauce
• 1 T sugar
• 3 T lime juice

***

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 tin (~15 oz) coconut milk
• 1 red bell chile
• 1 zucchini
• 1 chinese eggplant (the long, skinny, light purple ones)

What you gotta do: 

Remove the tougher outer leaves of the lemon grass, and slice the tender inner ones into rounds. Remove the stems from the little chiles, and coarsly chop the onion. You don't need to bother pre-chopping the garlic, or the cilantro.

Yes, that's more than three chiles. I said I like it very spicy.

Combine all of these, with the cilantro (pics! moar pics!) in the food processor.

Add the corriander, cumin, pepper, sugar, lime juice and fish sauce, and then whiz until it's a nice green paste.

If you're not familiar with fish sauce, here's a pic (yay pic!):

Fish sauce is a salty extract made mosty from anchovies. It contains no squid (as noted in the pic). It's a common seasoning in Thai and Vietnamese cuisines, and if it's not in the import foods section of your grocery, you can easily find it in Chinatown. And it's fragrant. Whatever you do, don't spill it. You'll spend days trying to figure out what that strange smell is, and then once you figure it out, you'll spend more days cleaning the freaking kitchen top to bottom because you missed wiping up a single freaking drop of fish sauce somewhere in there...

Um. Or maybe it's just me.

Dice the chicken, red chile, zucchini, and eggplant.

Heat a pan over medium with a small amount of oil. Add the paste and and fry it for a few minutes until it's fragrant.

Stir in the coconut milk. Bring to a simmer.

Add the chicken and veggies, and simmmer for about 20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through, and the veggies are tender.

Now, since I was treating this as a make ahead meal, I filled medium sized freezer bags with enough for a dinner and lunch the next day in each one.

Then, I laid them flat in the freezer until they were solid, then stood them up like books on a shelf to save space. A double recipe gave me 4 dinners and 4 lunches in 4 bags.

A quick pot of rice, and a freezer bag of curry makes a delicious quick dinner.

Serve it with a bit of prik-nam-pla (a Thai condiment made from 2 parts water, 2 parts fish sauce, 1 part lime juice, 1 part sugar, a bit of garlic, and a bit of hot chile sauce), and if you've got fresh basil handy, it makes a great final topping.

Oh, and lemongrass from the grocery will root if you put it in water. Look for stalks with as much of the root intact as possible, put it in a jar of water with a drop of plant food, and in a few weeks, you'll be able to put it into the dirt and have fresh green lemon grass any time you want.

Yay for green food!

What's your favourite green food or grow at home food?