CURRY DIP

This awesome Curry Dip is creamy and smooth, with a great Sweet Curry flavor and a little zip from the Horseradish.  I think it is the best dip I have found to serve with a vegetable tray.  Try it…you’ll never go back to Ranch Dressing.  I love it best with Asparagus and Sugar Snap or Snow Peas.

 

 

Photos for Throwback Thursdays seem to be the rage, so here’s my “2 cents”…Throwback Thursday Treats (TTT)!  OK…so to be socially correct, I’ll also throw in Throwback Thursday Photos (TTP).  You’ll get “2 for the price of 1”!  What a deal???  For my first Throwback Thursday Treat, the recipe you get is one I’ve been making for about 35 years. A few years ago, my friend, Linda Philhower, was cleaning out some old papers, and found this picture and article from the Plano Star Courier dated January 16, 1985.  Talk about memories…WOW…they came flooding back!

When Joel and I moved to Plano, I was really busy helping him set up and manage his new endodontic practice.  In an effort to help him promote his new practice, I also volunteered a lot and entertained often…forget the fact that I had 3 children under the age of 5.  On Valentine’s Day, I would clean out the living room (at that time it was the kids’ playroom complete with a jungle gym and a mini trampoline), rent tables and have about 10 dentists and their wives over for a 5 course Valentine soiree.  Considering the fact that these days I hit a wall at 4 in the afternoon, I have no idea how I kept going in those days???  I guess it’s called “Youth”.  Is it no wonder that my 5 o’clock glass of wine was very important to me?!  OK, so maybe it still is!!

 

 

This dip is one of my very favorite dips to serve with a veggiee tray!! It’s made with curry, which happens to be one of my favorite ingredients! If you aren’t a curry addict like me, not to worry, as most people don’t even realize this recipe has curry in it. I’m so addicted to this dip that I almost always have it in the fridge to pair with veggies when I have a “Snack Attack”!

 

 

I found this recipe in the McAllen Service League cookbook – “La Pinata”.  And why do I happen to have the McAllen Service League cookbook you ask??  OK, since you asked, I’ll tell you.  When Joel graduated from the Endodontic program at the University of Texas Dental School in Houston in 1978, we were sick of living in a big city. We visited lots of smaller areas, none of which excited us. When we visited the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, we knew we had found a haven from the “hustle and bustle” of city living. It was a really nice, slow paced area and…the orange blossoms were in bloom when we went to visit! The smell was amazing! So..McAllen it was.

All of my friends there were members of the McAllen Service League, and they all used “La Pinata”. If there was a social event, and, as McAllen is a very social town, there were 1-3 per week, recipes from “La Pinata” were always served. If you don’t have this cookbook, you should! If you happen to have the cookbook and would like to know what recipes I’ve tried, (and there are lots of them) just post your questions in the comment section or shoot me an email.

These days, as in those days, when I entertain, I’m always trying new recipes, especially appetizers. As they sometime are not low in calories…ok…they’re usually not low in calories, I try to serve some type of veggie tray to balance out the heavier appetizers and the calories. Now that I think about it, I’m sure I don’t have any friends who wouldn’t go for the fattening stuff first, but then, the veggie tray is always there to ease my conscience (Food Conscience???).  I know it isn’t one of the more exciting appetizers, but somehow, it always gets eaten!  The good news…if it doesn’t get eaten, vegetable soup can be on the menu the next day.

When I put a veggie tray together (depending on the size of the gathering), I usually include some or all of the following vegetables: baby carrots (or waffle cut carrots…my grandson Braden’s favorite), celery sticks, red or orange bell pepper slices, broccoli flowerettes, slightly steamed asparagus, grape tomatoes, jicama, snow peas or sugar snap peas and maybe some cauliflower. Along with the Curry Dip, I also serve Ranch Dressing (my kids prefer Hidden Valley Ranch, but I prefer Marie’s Creamy Ranch) and a good quality purchased (I like Marie’s Chunky Blue Cheese) or homemade Blue Cheese Dressing.  I’ll post my Blue Cheese Dressing soon.

The dip is great made the day before serving, and it will keep in the fridge about 2 weeks.  Just note, the longer you keep it, the more intense the flavor becomes, but for me, that’s a good thing.

Now, for the Throwback Thursday Photo…..

 

 

 

For the curry powder, I either use Penzeys sweet curry powder or I get curry powder from a great spice guy who calls his business Curry King.  His business is located on Main Street in Garland, Texas, but he also sells his spices at the Dallas Farmers’ Market on the weekend.  His family has been in the spice business for generations, and he grinds and mixes all of his spices.  I use Bolner’s Fiesta Brand garlic powder and onion salt.  Schnitzius Horseradish is one of my favorites.  (My father-in-law made his own horseradish, and this is no comparison to that, but he is no longer here to make it.)