A new leaf - Sun dried tomato dip

During my disappearing act, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life now that I've graduated. So after returning to Perth from beautiful Mauritius, Eirik and I decided to scout the East of Australia to possibly spend the next two years working somewhere new within Australia. We had an amazing time in Sydney and Melbourne, great food experiences as well!!! Which I will share and recommend. Right now, the most amazing date pudding I could ever imagine is coming to mind and building a craving.... When in Melbourne, this is a must! I'll share soon.

Though I am still not sure what I'll be doing over the next few months of my life, the next step is moving to Norway, in two and a half weeks. So lots of packing ahead, and making sure I visit a few favourite places before leaving.

Today was a relaxing day with a delicious snack and a delicious meal. For dinner, fresh salmon with the skin on, a nice salad, lemon wedges to squeeze, and sour cream topped with a sprinkling of spring onion. A tip for cooking salmon with the skin on: make your pan very hot, pop your salmon in skin down for a few minutes to crisp the skin, and then turn the heat down to cook the salmon through.

After tasting this flavorful dip at a friends birthday I knew I had to try it for myself, so today I made a sun-dried tomato dip and had with a baguette fresh from the bakery. Mmmm does that dip have flavour! I found a good recipe, which I'll share below with my tweaks.

Ingredients

Sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped (approx 15 pieces)
225g Cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup Sour cream
1/2 cup Mayonnaise (I might replace this with sour cream next time as the mayonnaise flavour was quite obvious and I would have preferred stronger sun-dried tomato flavour)
10 dashes, Tabasco or similar
1 teaspoon Salt
3/4 teaspoon Freshly ground black pepper
3 Sliced spring onions

It takes about 10 minutes to prep, and yields 2 cups.

Puree the tomatoes, cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, tabasco, salt and pepper in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the spring onions pulse just into they fold into the mixture. Serve at room temperature.

It's great with fresh vegetables (especially carrots), savory biscuits, or fresh baguette.

Tip: It gets even better after its stayed in the fridge for a while, the flavours infuse well over time, so I would suggest making this a few hours before you intend to serve it.