Balsamic/Olive Oil Bread Dip

Victoria & Scott Cohen's Note:

A marinade/cooking sauce/dip that has infinite uses. You can tailor it to your own tastes as well by adding or subtracting ingredients.

• Total Time: 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 40

Yield: 20.0 enough ...

• ½ cup balsamic vinegar (the good stuff)
• 1 cup good quality olive oil
• 6 -8 tablespoons Gilroy garlic , minced (I find it at QFC fresh veg area)
• 1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
• 1 -2 teaspoon ground aniseed
• 1 tablespoon dried, chopped onion
• ½ teaspoon celery seed
• basil (fresh ground fine or jarred)

Directions:

1. I never make this quite the same way twice but man is it good to keep on hand.
2. Mix EVERYTHING together in a bowl and pour into a nice glass container.
3. I get wide mouth ones at Ross, but they have them everywhere.
4. Let it sit for a few hours and shake it up lots to mix all the flavors together.
5. I keep it on my counter and use it for about a million things from boneless chicken thighs braise to salad dressing.
6. If you get a really great loaf of crusty french bread and put a bit of this into fancy little dishes, you can serve it with any meal allowing each person his own dipping sauce.
7. It's addictive and sooooo easy to make and keep on hand.
8. Enjoy!

Reviews

[Kristen M.]

I used regular garlic and couldnt find any ground aniseed, but it was still delicious! I served this as a bread dip in little dishes to people at a vegan dinner party that I had. Everyone loved it! It also saved the day as an emergency salad dressing when I realized I had forgotten to buy some. Very easy to make, and very addictive!

[Guabi Guabi]

I used this to marinate lamb chops. I replaced the basil with mint, had to use plain garlic cloves (can't find Gilroy) and I used a litttle Pernod (a French anise-flavoured liqueur) since we can't buy anise seeds here. The chops tasted very nice. I will use this to experiment with other foods.

[Wrecks143]

We love this recipe. We've altered it a little (no anissed or celery seed) but that suits us fine. We've been making it NON STOP since we found it. It's a good recipe to add/subtract too. Thanks for this one!