Chip Beef Dip/Spread (Another Oldie but Goodie!)

This is a really old old recipe that many of our family members make from different sources.  I remember as a young married living across from the A & P in Broadripple in Indianapolis and they made this dip.  We bought it so often the deli lady told me how to make it.  My sister has a similar version marked from our ex-sister-in-law so it has been around for sure.  It is really good though, I can remember my sisters and I, the three of us  polishing off a whole batch in our youth!

Ingredients for Chip Beef Dip/Spread:

2 C. sour cream
8 ounces softened Philly cream cheese
3 green onion sliced with tops very finely
1 jar dried beef
1/8-1/4 t. garlic powder
1/8-1/4 t. Worcestershire sauce

Beat the cream cheese and sour cream together until fluffy.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients and serve.  Refrigerate in a sealed container any remaining or if not serving immediately. .  It just gets better.  Today we tried with some of the new "cracker" chips.  Also very good with crunchy vegetables or to stuff celery.  Yum!  Sometimes on weekends I make this up with veggies and meat and cheese and stash in the refrigerator so we can fend for ourselves mid-day or if the kids come by early.

Yield 3 cups.

Fried Onion and Chive Dip

There is deliciousness in frying an onion in butter!

There is a good possibility we are going to dinner with friends this week and it is always handy to have something made up to nibble on with say a glass of wine. There is a big pot of fresh green chives that has wintered over several seasons on my patio that encourages me to adapt this Fried Onion Dip recipe from Amy Thielen's, "The Midwestern Table, the source of this recipe.  I saw she also is appearing on a cooking show and I think she really has a flair for putting things together.

Fired onions are almost magic in my book and from an early age I have loved the smell and flavor of them.  Even the gnarled black crusty look of them invokes thoughts of a charred sweetness to be found within.

Ingredients for Fried Onion and Chive Dip:

1/2 stick salted butter (4 T.)
1 large sweet onion peeled and sliced in 1/2" rings
3/4 t. kosher salt
1/4 t. ground black pepper
1 t. honey
3 cloves of garlic
1/4 C. dry vermouth or dry white wine
3/4 C. sour cream
2 ounces softened cream cheese
2 T. sliced finely fresh chives + more for garnish
1-2 dashes hot sauce

Clarify the butter by heating in a heavy skillet over medium high heat until it foams and browns.  Skim off all of the foam leaving only the clear golden ghee. Discard the foam.

Add onions, salt, and pepper to the clarified butter.

Heat the clarified butter over medium  high heat adding the separated onions rings.  Add the salt and pepper to the onions and cook turning often until very very brown and crusty!  About 10 minutes. 

Fresh ingredients are the best ingredients.

Add the honey and garlic and cook 1 more minute.

This is the treasure that makes this dip recipe!

Add the vermouth and simmer for about 3 minutes until the liquid thickens.  Remove from the heat and cool.

Put the sour cream and cream cheese in a mixing bowl and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until smooth.  Finely chop the cooked onions and add them along with all of their pan juices.   Stir on the chives and hot sauce.

This is good with any chip or crisp vegetable.  I have been sampling dippers!

Transfer into a small serving bowl and garnish with more of the fresh chives.    This can be made ahead and refrigerated.   

Serve with chips, crackers, or crisp vegetables.  Yield almost 2 cups of dip.