feta blue cheese spread with sweet wine reduction and pistachios...
Got your attention? This is one of those examples where I dine out, love the flavor of something and try to get the deep dive on ingredients. Will you ask the chef please? [So I can recreate it at home]?
We have been home from our 'year abroad' for nearly a year. Last year, we left on May 18. Forever an anniversary of one of our greatest adventures; a tribute to trying to live sans regrets. One of our family's mantras is: 'make it count.'
Since we have been home, we are more deliberate about nestling into our community (again, trying to 'make it count'). This means reaching out to our neighbors, attending Seattle events, putting ourselves out there to meet new friends and reconnect with old friends. I recently went to lunch with an old college roommate. We gabbed, talked, chatted and guffawed for almost 2 hours---hardly taking time to peek at the menu.
But we were happy when we did.
We ate at LOLA, one of Tom Douglas' restaurants in downtown Seattle. I love the place; the food is whimsical with a 'tapas' bent---Greek food I would sit down for any day of the week. We couldn't decide which tapenade to try, so we ordered all six. It was fun to compare, taste, choose favorites and even combine a few. Like a miniature playground of tastes. BOTH of us picked the 'feta blue cheese' dip as our favorite. So I asked for the low-down on ingredients and made it later, at home:
scant 1/4 cup Blue Cheese 1/3 cup Feta 1/4 - 1/3 cup Olive Oil 1 - 2 T chopped Chives 2 - 3 T Anaheim Pepper (or jalapeno if you want hotter) Kosher Salt & Coarsely ground Pepper (KS&CP) Optional: reduced dessert wine and pistachios.
Blend to combine, adding enough oil for spreadable consistency. Taste, and adjust seasoning if needed (more salt or pepper). We ate with warmed pita that had a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt. The tapenade was topped with a reduced sweet wine (marsala or sherry would work; perhaps a very well-aged balsamic) and a sprinkling of pistachios. BTW to reduce wine, just put in small pot on stove on a simmer until volume is reduced in half.
