Artichoke Dip
I have always been eternally grateful for this crowd-pleaser. People love this kind of party food – especially the golden brown melted cheese on top. Although it is basically vegetarian, don’t forget that Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies.
Easily feeds 10 for canapés, or 4-6 as individual starters if you cook them in individual ramekins
- 3 x 400 g tins whole artichoke hearts, drained
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 200 g mayonnaise
- 200 g grated cheese - Gruyere and mozzarella are good
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 180 C
Drain the artichokes well, or the dip will be very soggy.
Chop the artichokes very finely and mix with the onion, mayonnaise, half of the grated cheese and remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary; you may want to add more mayonnaise. Spoon into a gratin dish or individual ramekins, smooth the top of the dip and top with the remaining grated cheese.
Cook for about 30 minutes, until the topping is golden brown, and the dip is piping hot. Serve with your favourite crackers.
Pissaladiere
(serves 4-6 as a main)
Preheat oven to 180C
- 2 peppers, deseeded and roughly sliced
- 4 portobello mushrooms, wiped clean and quartered
- 3 spanish onions, finely sliced
- 3 red onions, finely sliced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp miso paste or marmite
- level tsp chopped fresh thyme
- 100g hard goat's cheese, sliced
- 375g puff pastry
- fresh oregano to garnish
Roast the mushrooms and peppers together in a roasting tin with a little olive oil, sherry vinegar and salt and pepper until very slightly charred. While those are roasting, sweat the sliced onions over a low heat in some olive oil for about 25 minutes, but without colouring them. Then add the garlic, miso/marmite and thyme and cook for one minute before allowing the mixture to cool.
To assemble the pissaladiere for cooking, roll out the pastry to fit the baking tray. Top it with the onions, then with slices of the peppers, mushrooms and slices of goat's cheese.
Bake till the base is crisp and golden – about 40 minutes – but take care not to burn it. When it's done, sprinkle over the oregano and serve at room temperature.
Listen back to this week's Moncrieff food slot with Domini Kemp below:
