June | 2014 | beets me

Thank you thank you @annies-eats for this recipe! I went to a friend’s house on a lake last weekend and promised to bring a dip along. I haven’t made any dips in a while and wanted to try out something cold since Atlanta summer isn’t the best environment for hot buffalo chicken dip. Also – this could be a dairy free dip if you want to eliminate the feta.

In my family, we LOVE a Mexican 7-layer dip, so if you’re one of those people who likes a big mound of dip on your chip, tune in! This is pretty versatile too – you could really add a variety of different veggies – bell peppers, small chopped broccoli, some whole chickpeas or roasted chickpeas, etc.

I cheated a bit and used store bought hummus, but I think the homemade pesto and fresh veggies make up for it. I think I’ll be bringing this recipe back for the 4th of July weekend and hopefully trying some different variations. Anyone think there’s some way to make a Chinese 7-layer dip? Penny for your thoughts.

Mediterranean 7-layer dip, adapted from Annie’s Eats

Cilantro pesto:

1 1/2 cups fresh cilantro (I used stems and leaves)

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided

4 TBS walnuts

1/4 cup crumbled feta

Dip:

3/4 of an English cucumber, diced

half of a red onion, diced

banana peppers, chopped in half

kalamata olives, sliced

julienned sundried tomatoes (I think you could also used diced cherry tomatoes)

crumbled feta cheese (about 1/2-3/4 cup)

1. Make the cilantro pesto: Add the garlic, cilantro, walnuts, some fresh cracked pepper, and 2 TBS olive oil to the bowl of a small food processor. Pulse until not quite a paste, but everything is mixed evenly. Then, slowly drizzle in your olive oil. I didn’t end up needing the whole 1/3 of a cup, but I do like my pesto thicker. After you’ve finished pulsing, mix in your feta (don’t pulse in the food processor, just slowly mix into the mixture)

2. Assemble! I used two different kinds of hummus so I spread them both together in the bottom of a pie plate. After the hummus, add your cilantro pesto in the middle and spread out in an even layer. Then add your toppings! Cukes, red onion, pepps, olives, tomatoes, and you can either end with the feta or add it in batches.

I am back friends! Sorry for the extensive delay, I have no excuses! I have to tell you something – these are the best steak tacos I’ve ever made. Coincidentally the ONLY ones I’ve ever made as well. I haven’t entertained in a while and had it easy this time because I cooked with my friend Caelan – a gem of a host. The fact that it took us 30 minutes to cook a steak didn’t phase him a bit and I’m also very grateful he didn’t get mad at me for literally incinerating his pans while frying tortillas! Thanks Caelan!

If you are going to make this recipe, please use your grill! It’s quite a simple recipe taken from mountainmamacooks, however we tried to cook the steak in the broiler and haven’t mastered that quite yet….SO, here we go.

Are you loving loving loving summer? Or just one loving? It’s a triple loving summer for me. I just moved into an apartment with about 1 foot of counter space, have a porch swing, my roommate’s moving here in a week, and it’s the season for endless frozen yogurt.

Let me tell you very briefly about a few things I’m triple-loving this June. My mom brought me three herb plants for my front porch which was the highlight of my week. Let’s all cross our fingers that they don’t get knocked over or stolen (yes, that’s happened). I’ve had some solid popsicles in the past month including a blackberry ginger one and a pomegranate margarita. There’s beer ice cream out there also. I ate a jalapeno corndog at a festival and discovered the sensation that is Trombone Shorty. Annnndddd I made these tacos.

I’ve had this recipe on my pinterest for some time now, but I wanted to save it for a time when someone familiar with steak could help me out! Cue damsel in distress music. Honestly, this meal – while served about 1.5 hours later than expected, was fantastic. When I told my mom about how there happened to be enough for everyone, she said “like the loaves and fishes!” And I thought, exactly.

It’s funny how there’s always enough, isn’t there? The more people that you are surrounded with, it seems that we’d all need more food to keep us going – but really the more good company there is, the less the food matters. Shoot, is this post becoming pointless?! I’ll post pics soon, then you’ll listen.

Korean Steak Tacos with Pear Mango Cilantro Slaw, adapted from mountain mama cooks

1 2.5 lb flank steak

1/2 cup fresh cilantro (stems are ok)

2.5 TBS brown sugar

3 TBS soy sauce

3 TBS veg oil

2 cloves garlic

1 -2 tsb chili garlic sauce

1/2 tsp coriander

juice of half a lime

for the slaw:

1/2 a head of green cabbage

1 pear, in thin strips

juice of 2 limes

3-4 TBS rice wine vinegar

1/4 bunch of cilantro, minced

1/2-1 mango, diced

kosher salt, red pepper flakes

For serving:

Corn tortillas, sauteed peppers, rice, guac, refried beans

Marinate this steak in the morning or the night before you are going to cook it. I couldn’t tell if the recipe specified to actually blend (as in blend in the blender) the marinade or if it just meant mix the ingredients together. I decided to puree the marinade in the food processor which worked well as a sauce for the steak. Place the steak in a non-reactive dish or plastic bag with the marinade and place in the refrigerator (I did this in the morning of the day we cooked)

When it is time for the partay, assemble the slaw while you’re preheating the grill/broiler. Try to slice the cabbage as thin as possible. Toss together all the slaw ingredients to let the flavors meld before cooking the steak. Grill the steak for 10-12 minutes (says the recipe it took us like 30 minutes including stoppage time to broil it) total and let sit for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

To fry tortillas I used two methods. One was to fill a saute pan with half an inch of oil and fully fry the tortillas. The other was to fry them in just a thin layer of oil to make them thick. Either way I pretty much burned down my friend’s kitchen so maybe use flour tortillas if you don’t want to worry about this!!

Serve family style and NOM! If you make these please let me know I’d love to hear how they turn out for you!

beets me

Monthly Archives: June 2014

Mediterranean 7-layer Dip

Korean Steak Tacos with Pear Mango Cilantro Slaw