How to make an exquisite garlic dip

Garlic dip

In this blog post, I am going to teach you how to prepare a delicious garlic dip. You might be wondering, why garlic dip? Whilst it is true that you could eat it by itself, you should know that it is an excellent condiment for many foods, especially meats. I learned how to make it in my house from a very young age as an ideal condiment for sausages (From Colombia to the world: butifarras). My father taught me everything I would need to know to make this classic garlic dip that I have prepared many times over the years and have been perfecting over time. In my house, you could never not have this delicious accompaniment.

The garlic dip is made with a base made from two of my favourite ingredients: garlic and whey. They are often used for fried meals, since they are a great accompaniment for carimañolas, empanadas and egg arepas. Many people make it themselves for their own personal consumption, and everyone has their own version.

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Although it is not characterized by its complexity when preparing it, garlic dip requires our attention when choosing the ingredients, so that it retains its delicious flavour and the meals that it accompanies are exquisite.

Without further ado, let's look at the ingredients we need, the preparation process and some tips and advice for making an excellent dip:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 litre of milk

• Two garlic cloves

• Spice to your liking

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

• 1 litre Suero Costeño or cream cheese

• 1 teaspoon mustard

• 1 teaspoon mayonnaise

Advice

You have to be very careful about the cream cheese you choose since, being the main ingredient of the dip, your choice basically affects the flavour that the dip will have. Suero Costeño is a cream cheese, typically acidic and very typical of Colombia, but it is used much more frequently along the Caribbean coast, especially Córdoba, Sucre and Bolívar. Within the country it is also possible to find it in chain stores, but none are superior to the Suero Costeño that, when made by hand, looks much more rustic and is also much more acidic, which ultimately makes it tastier to have with meals.

When choosing the cream cheese, ask for a sample before buying it. Ideally, it would be quite thick; if it is not liquefied it will be very thick and we might even find some small pieces of cheese. If it is liquefied, it will be much smoother and, in many cases, much more expensive, but ideally, when tasting it, it should seem like it is a milky cream but with that indescribable sharp taste that characterises it.

Once we have our ideal cream and all of the other ingredients, it is time to conjure up some magic and prepare our delicious garlic dip.

Preparation:

• Liquid cream cheese

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• Non-liquid cream cheese

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Before you start, you have to look at what type of cream cheese you have bought (liquefied or not liquefied), however, you could follow the method based on the non-liquefied cream just by adding in another step, otherwise you should ignore the first instructions.

1. Divide the litre of cream cheese and divide it into two parts (if possible, 60:40)

2. Blend the first part (60%)

3. Peel the garlic cloves

4. Once the two garlic cloves are peeled, blend them with the rest of the cream cheese (40%)

5. Put the two cream cheese mixes together.

6. Depending on how thick you want it, pour in the milk and stir (I recommend not thinning the mixture too much).

7. Add the spice, mayonnaise and mustard. Stir.

8. Add the salt to your liking, and voilà

9. Enjoy

Preparation costs

As I mentioned before, it is best to buy artisanal cream that is ideal for sauces and dips, and whose litre has an approximate cost of 3, 000 pesos or the equivalent of 0. 85 euros (0. 71 pounds). But if you find it difficult to buy or get this cream, you can buy the ones that are sold in different supermarkets and chain stores that, despite not being as good, are paradoxically more expensive. A litre of cream cheese costs 12, 350 pesos (approximately 3. 5 euros, or 2. 93 pounds), which is more than four times the price of artisanal whey.

The two garlic heads have a price of 500 pesos (0. 15 euros or 0. 12 pounds), it is possible to get half a litre of milk for 1, 750 pesos (0. 50 euros or 0. 41 pounds); the spice can be obtained in small packets for 3, 000 pesos (0. 85 euros or 0. 71 pounds), but it should be noted that not everything will be used and it is a very common thing to have at home already, so most of you will surely not need to buy it. The same goes for mayonnaise and mustard, since they are very common ingredients in most households, it will not be necessary to buy them, but in case of doing so they can be purchased from local stores for a maximum price of 1, 000 pesos for each of them, they should cost 2000 pesos (0. 60 euros or 0. 47 pounds) together.

Calculating the total cost of making this exquisite garlic dip, it should cost a little over ten thousand pesos (less than three euros or pounds). This is in case you buy all of the ingredients and use the artisanal cream, because if you have and use the ingredients already at home, then the price will be reduced a little. Now, if you buy the cream cheese from the chain stores or supermarkets, the price goes up to a little less than twenty thousand, which is 5. 60 euros or 4. 74 pounds when you change the currency. That is to say that the price practically doubles and you lose a lot of the traditional flavour that has been produced along the Colombian coast for generations.

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It is not too easy to get the homemade cream cheese and for people like me, who grew up eating yucca with this dip, it is torture that we live outside of my homeland, Magangué (This is my city... Magangué). I imagine it will be quite complicated for those who live outside of Colombia, because in Bogotá and the inner cities it is already practically impossible to find it and even in Cartagena it is quite complicated. However, for those who have not been to the Colombian Caribbean coast or if you have been but have never tried a good garlic dip with coastal cream cheese, this blog will give you an idea of how it is prepared, although as I said before, everyone makes it in their own way, so this has only been to share a little of my culture and my roots.

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