Green Olive Dip, and the Evolution of Taste

September 26, 2012
By Holly Jennings

On the fourth glorious day of eating Green Olive Dip, while sitting on our front porch in our Victorian neighborhood, I realized what is so intriguing about this dip. And why I love David Leite’s cookbook The New Portuguese Table and the Dowdy Corners Cookbook Club.

To my non-Portuguese palate, evolved from a one part mid-Western, one part Southern, but entirely anchovy-free diet, there is something ever so slightly repulsive about this addictive dip, made with six anchovies (and since I doubled the recipe for a dinner party, my batch had twelve anchovies).

Yes, addictive. If its assertive anchovy flavor repulses, its attractions are even stronger. Won over, you will find yourself wanting another helping, and then another. I understand how David Leite could eat an entire bowl of this dip himself, as he did when first encountering it at a restaurant in Portugal.

That is why I love David Leite’s cookbook. By selecting the most delicious recipes of his family’s homeland—and presumably those which will be the appealing to the American eater—he has made me a lover of Portuguese cuisine and challenged my palate. And I love the Dowdy Corners Cookbook Club because it gets me and all its members to explore new foods and cooking techniques from around the world.

If you are like me, as I was prior to my Green Olive Dip experience, you like anchovies but only when used in the faintest amount—one or two to add a je ne sais quoi (now called umami) to food. To reboot your taste buds, I suggest you work your way through a few batches of Green Olive Dip. That’s what I plan to do. And in the meantime, on the road to upping your anchovy limit, it’s kind of fun to be conscious of its push-me, PULL-me effect. After all, some of the greatest art, the art that is most alluring, has a dark and mysterious underpinning.

(Note: I liked the dip best after it had sat for two days in the fridge. By then the flavor of the green olives had permeated the dip, balancing the anchovies. This dip can be enjoyed with crackers or bread, but I think it’s best with some good, rustic bread.)

 


0 Comments to “Green Olive Dip, and the Evolution of Taste”


  1. I had to make that, too! So intriguing. And then I was brought a pot as a gift. I love it.

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  2. Do you mean the pot was given to you in a show of appreciation for making the dip? Pretty good deal, there. Hmmm, where’s my pot? I’ll have to make it again to see if a gift appears. Just curious. Do you own the book? Or did you find the recipe online? Along with being available on David Leite’s website, the recipe is also on The Splendid Table’s site.

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  3. Sandra Korinchak says:

    Hey, Holly, it looks great from your photos. Likewise your posting about the tomato jam! Question: for the club meeting/potluck at the end of Oct., when do people stake their claims to what recipe they’re going to bring? I have more to try first, but this will be my first meeting so just wondered. Thanks!

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  4. They are good! I made something from the book yesterday that I know you would like: the spicy pumpkin seeds. There’s no particular deadline for deciding what dish to bring, though usually people decide and let the others members know a week or so before the potluck.

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