Cheese spread

Someone served a delicious cheese spread at my Master Gardening last class on Thursday, and I’ve been obsessing over how to duplicate it. She used a jarred chutney and peanuts. I used some peach ginger chutney I made last year and some toasted almonds.

16 ounces whipped cream cheese (full fat from grass-fed organic cows, of course)
4 tablespoons of sour cream (see above)
1 small onion, diced small
1 stalk of celery, diced small
1/4 cup diced colored bell peppers
1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped small
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped small
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup diced raisins
1/4 cup diced dried apricots
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Spoon into small ramekin, cover with chutney.

Sprinkle with chopped blanched, peeled, roasted and chopped almonds (organic)
Chopped candied ginger
Freshly grated nutmeg

Serve with crackers or warm pita bread. Or naan. I used warmed-up flour tortillas, because it’s what I had on hand.

Try to keep from eating with a spoon. I’ve got two servings in the icebox to see how the flavors develop over time, without any of the toppings, which I’ll add when we eat it. You could make it firmer with regular cream cheese instead of whipped, but I snitched this from the pigs, so used what I had.

Here’s what I did for Peach Chutney, a year ago. I’m glad I wrote down my recipe then, because this is really good. The ginger is still a little crunchy, even, which is nice.

Based sort of on this recipe, but I had a lot more peaches to use.

15 pounds of peaches
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 bottle pomegranate juice
1 thing frozen orange juice
2 cups maple syrup
2 tablespoons ground cardamom
1 cup ginger root, diced small
1 cup diced hot peppers
1 tablespoon ground pepper

I cooked it down until it fit into my large crockpot, then left it on low overnight until it was thick.

It got quite dark. It’s yummy. Not too hot, but a nice kick, and the maple syrup is really evident. Yum. It made thirty 4-ounce jars. I put it in the small size since I figure that’s all the chutney we’d want at one time. Now I’m not so sure. Half pints might have been a better choice.