Allison's French Onion Dip (It Wasn't)

Yah, so my friend makes this French onion dip that we all love. The first time I made it, I followed her recipe (leaving out this and that, if I didn't think it'd be missed), my kids said it wasn't quite right. They don't mince their words.

Something you need to know about me and cooking. We don't exactly blend together, y'know?

So I tried it a second time recently, cos we had this party we were going to, where I was told to bring a vegetable dish.

My vegetable dish. Blanched broccoli, raw carrot, celery, and cucumber strips, and cherry tomatoes. To be eaten with Allison's French Onion Dip! (well, technically it's not Allison's but I don't think the French would mind) Drool.



This time the kids (who are my worst cooking critics) said the dip was:

(kids not mentioned in any order)

Kid 1. it's nice! (and tucked into it)
Kid 2. it's not the same as Allison's..(and took apprehensive bites)
Kid 3. there's something not quite right about it. You put something in there that you're not supposed to...(gulp! I swallowed - it was detected)

sigh. I had put in so much effort this second time round. I had gone through all the trouble of buying everything right down to the cayenne pepper. Even though it only needed one eighth of a teaspoonful!

But when I was making it, I discovered that I.
forgot.
the.
worcestershire sauce.









This is how you pronounce it:

Worcestershire sauce (pronounced /ˈwʊstərʃərsɔːs/ WOOS -tər-sher-saws ), or Worcester sauce ( /ˈwʊstərsɔːs/ WOOS -tər-saws )

I know, right? That was so helpful. Cos I'm just cool like that.


No worcestershire sauce? No problem. Like every exasperating non-cook expert cook out there, I just improvised (love how that word sounds - kinda like improve + otherwise all rolled up into one word). Worcestershire sauce tastes sourish to me. So I used.
.
.
.
coming
.
.
.
wait
.
.
.
.
hold your heart
.
.
.
.

a dash of Japanese sushi vinegar (and all the Japanese say, HAI!)

I don't think the French would mind...I mean, look, I even put up their flag there:



But worcestershire sauce is dark in colour. hmmm, no problem. I added
.
.
.
.
coming.
.
.
.
wait
.
.
.
.
.
.
hold your heart (I really mean that...)
.
.
.

a dash of light soya sauce (and all the French say, NON!)

And there you have it. Improvised Worcestershire sauce for Val's French onion dip. The guests at the party didn't think there was anything wrong with it. (and my kids will say, "of course lah, how can they tell the truth?" sheesh.)

Anyway, I found out that, and I quote from wikipedia.org

"The ingredients of a traditional bottle of Worcestershire sauce sold in the UK as "The Original & Genuine Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce" are malt vinegar (from barley), spirit vinegar, molasses, sugar, salt, anchovies, tamarind extract, onions, garlic, spice, and flavouring.^[8] The "spice, and flavouring" is believed to include cloves, soy sauce, lemons, pickles and peppers."

So I wasn't that far off whattttt.....

I was going to add the recipe here (the Allison one) but I didn't think you'd trust me.





p/s if you're reading my blog, do sign up as a follower if you haven't already. C'mon, don't be shy. And leave a comment here cos I love to read your comments. They will not appear immediately but they will come to me first, then I have to 'publish' them. And I do try to reply every comment, too. If you read "this comment has been removed", it is not because I didn't like it, but I sometimes mistakenly published the same one twice, so I removed the extra one.