Delicious Party Dip

Tricia makes a delicious party dip that our family loves.  It doesn't last for very long. It is not made from something that you normally think about when making a good little appetizer or snacking dip - Radishes.  I stumbled across this recipe a couple of years ago when searching for something to do with a bumper crop of radishes and now radishes have become a staple crop in the fall/winter garden.

Here's a shot of the green leaves of a whole row of radishes growing right now:

A robust row of red radishes

Let's pick a nice handful:

Ruby Red Radishes

Of course when I'm in the garden, the girls have been conditioned to come running for a snack that I hand over the fence.  I pulled the tops of the radishes off and gave them to Rosie.  She was a happy little lady.

Thanks for the snack

Now if you're going to make dip, you need crackers.  Tricia decided to try to make crackers from scratch. With a cup of the cornmeal that we had hand-ground from whole kernel corn, she added a half cup of buttermilk, 3 tablespoons of butter, 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 teaspoon sea salt, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/8 teaspoon Criolla Sella pepper, 1/2 teaspoon chili powder and 1 teaspoon garlic powder and she kneaded it all up and rolled it out flat.

Rolling the dough out flat

Then she sliced it into 'cracker-sized' pieces.

Cutting crackers

Then she popped them in an oven heated to 350 degrees F and baked for 15 minutes.  There's also a pumpkin pie in there as well - yum!

Lovin' in the oven!

And here we are - homemade crackers!

Snack Crackers

So let's make our dip or the crackers will disappear before we have a chance to dip them.  First, we cut off the root and what's left of the stem.

Cleaning up a few radishes

We peel a few cloves of garlic:

Garlic

We soften up a brick of cream cheese and cut it into squares and put into a bowl.

Cream cheese for the dip

We put the radishes and garlic in a food processor and chop them up until they are finely minced.  When you open the top, you get a big whiff of spicy radishes.

Chopping up the radishes and garlic

Spoon the radish/garlic mixture into the bowl of cream cheese and stir.

Once mixed up, add a splash of kosher salt and a dash of Criolla Sella ground pepper.  You can get creative and add chili powder, if you'd like, for more flavor.  Stir it up again to mix it all up.

Salt and red pepper

Now the only thing left to do is to eat!  Grab a cracker (or three) and help yourself.

A mouth-watering up close view

This is spicy and good.  We almost ate the entire bowl this evening.  No worries, we've got lots more radishes growing in the garden.  This recipe is so quick and easy to make, you'll be snacking in no time.