Awesome “Peruvian” Garlic Lime Dip

There is a Peruvian restaurant by the name of Pio Pio in Queens, NY; I highly recommend this place!

It serves huge portions of really good food for reasonable prices [off the top of my head, I can say a table of 3 (one big eater, one medium to big eater, one small eater) shared a Matador special (roasted chicken [not having had Peruvian food before, the spices were not in a familiar blend but quite unique and tasty without being spicy (our guest has a very low spice tolerance)], avocado salad [fresh and yummy with a sublimely fitting light balsamic vinegarette], sausages [read:hot dogs, not very exciting but dry (not greasy) and good when dipped] & fries [typical, though not greasy, good for dipping] and fried plantains [also dry (not greasy) and rather bland by themselves but an amazing base for the dipping sauces]) for a hearty lunch, were stuffed, and had enough leftovers for two of the three to have lunch the next day at the least (we may have stretched it further than that I cannot now recall) and this came to $30 I believe, with at least one drink or extra but I cannot recall what the extra was].

However, it is a bit out of the way for me (and includes at least $8 in tolls). Also, we are trying to ever-shrink our expenses so as to be able to save some for future land purchases (even living as far from NYC as we do, cost of living here is rather more than comfortable), and thus restaurant expenses were one of the first to get chopped back.

Living as we do so close to so many amazing restaurants, this is rather saddening for me, and I have been trying to make high quality food to keep myself from feeling deprived.

While everything I had at Pio Pio is tasty and interesting [and I am told the fish is out of this world, but not being a fan of cooked fish I cannot say for certain] by far my favorite thing about this restaurant is its two dipping sauces.

One that I have successfully [at least in my and my partner's opinion] reproduced is the Garlic Lime Dip and is posted here.

Once avocados are on sale and ripe again I shall begin to poke at the other dip–which I am certain includes avocado and jalapeño, but I am not sure what else.

But until then we have been thoroughly enjoying this dip and I hope you all do as well.

Garlic Lime Dip

Ingredients:

the juice and zest of one freshly squeezed lime

1/2-3/4 head of fresh garlic, pulverized [sliced & diced as thin as you possibly can, and then whirled about in a food processor for a bit to keep it somewhat chunky but juicy and dippy] (vary amount of garlic depending on your preference for the taste as well as if you are attempting to use this recipe at medicine [if so, use more])

6-8 Tablespoons good extra virgin olive oil

4-6 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

A very small amount (think 1 twist) of freshly ground multi color peppercorns [if you are so included, this may be omitted]

Combine the ingredients together, and whip into a delicious sauce for dipping potatoes, plantains, chicken, chips–frankly anything dippable. I have yet to try to put this sauce on something and not have it become amazing. But then I also adore garlic.

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A note: I tried once to double this recipe for a party and found it significantly more vinegary and garlicy than usual. Thus my recommendation would be to make one batch at this size and just make more as you need it [I'd recommend keeping the pre-chopped garlic and possibly zested/juiced lime in the fridge until needed as it will make it much easier to make on the go in a social situation].

I have also had a lot of luck using this recipe to get raw garlic into folks who need it to fight off colds or whatnot. I usually go for the 3/4 head at that point. The lime and vinegar really cut the raw garlic bite and its zesty and slightly spicy without being overpowering.

I’d love to hear abut others’ experiences/tinkering with it.

~ by delectablesustainability on February 8, 2008.