Albuquerque Dip to die for

Hi everyone .


Happy 4th of July , the weather is July perfect , rising humidity, rising heat and frazzled parents . Well, I enjoyed drinks on my patio the other day with my friend Sharon , and somehow we managed to put away one bottle of wonderful organic Malbec , dip , chips and conversation in a timeframe of 2 hours - and still keep our heads clear . Hence , I cannot explain the touch.... hint of blurriness of the photo .


Sharon came bearing gifts , one of which was this delicious dip - with a post-it note stuck to it - letting me know I could not enjoy this deliciousness for at least 24 hours . What is a gourmet goddess to do - but bide her time , it looked very colourful and smelt amazing .


The recipe has travelled along way , all the way from Albuquerque New Mexico , via a friend of Sharons, from a restauruant which escapes everyones memory . To this restaurant , I acknowledge you and thank you for inventing this wonderful dip .


It is not your typical soft serve dip , it is chunky, it is moreish and received outstanding approvals from both my little gourmets. It is a collusion of Mediterranean and Mexican flavours , you have olives, balsamic ( in this case it was made with red wine vinegar - due to allergies .....I still think it tasted awesome) corn, cilantro and beans. I tweaked it a bit because I think kalamata olivess would give a greater taste than tinned olives - and I urger you make it with deli brought olives rather than tinned ones .


This would be great served as a side dish with any grilled meat , served with rice - but we enjoyed it on its own with blue corn chips.


I urge you all make this , put it away in your fridge and enjoy it tomorrow with your 4th of July festivities .


Albuquerque Dip
from a restaurant in NM


3 tbls Balsamic vinegar
1 can small chopped green chilies
3 tbsl taco seasoning
2 ripe diced tomatoes
3 tabsp olive oil
1 tbsp sugar
2 garlic cloves ( finely chopped or put through a garlic press )

1 cup pitted kalamata olives , sliced
1 cup pitted green olives roughly chopped
1 bunch green onions chopped - white and green part
1 15 oz pinto beans 
10oz bag of white frozen corn - try making it with the yellow and white corn
1-2 cups Mexican shreddes cheese * read my note in the method


Put everything in a bowl except the cheese , I would recommend the prepackaged Mexican cheese mix , or you can really make it special by crumbling some Mexican Chichuaua cheese . If you are not a huge fan of balsamic you can swap it out for good quality red wine vinegar .