Holiday Recipe #2: Christmas and Cream Cheese!
I don’t know what office holiday parties are like in the rest of the world, but here in the southern U.S., they can be pretty dreadful. On NPR right now, as a matter of fact, is one of the annual pieces on office party etiquette. Whatever other social horrors these parties forebode, they can also have a pretty chintzy selection of food (depending on where you work, of course). A familiar item on food tables around here is a block of cream cheese with some sort of chutney or jelly poured on top. Now, usually I would be opposed to something so effortless, so devoid of cooking. But for some reason, whenever I happen to be at one of these parties, I can’t stop spreading the chutney-covered cream cheese on my crackers. It really does taste good, I just couldn’t ever bring my self to dump a solid block of cream cheese from its foil wrapper right onto a pewter tray. It just isn’t me.
To help with this dilemma, my good friend Casey (with whom I used to work, coincidentally) gave me this recipe. As you will see from the ingredient list, the dip is not lacking in cream cheese. But the presentation is much more elegant, and the cheddar and pecan layer at the bottom provides a nice punch to the whole affair. Now, this dip is in no way gourmet cuisine. But, it’s pretty and Christmas-colored, people like it, and you can make it in about 10 minutes without dirtying anything except your food processor and the spring form pan you put it in. I could never complain about a recipe like that.
Here’s how you make it:
Christmas Torte
12 ounces grated cheddar cheese
3/4 cup salted pecans (better if they’re roasted)
1/2 small onion
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 10-ounce package frozen spinach, thawed
1/3 cup cranberry chutney (you can use any kind, but I like the cranberry because it makes the middle layer reddish)
1/2 t. Kosher salt
Grease a small spring form pan. Spread the grated cheese in one layer on the bottom. In the food processor, chop the pecans and onions together with the salt and cayenne until chopped finely. The mixture will be a bit pasty. Mix the pecans and onions with the grated cheese on the bottom of the pan; press down to make a kind of crust. Then, in the food processor, mix the chutney and 1 package of the cream cheese until smooth. Spread this mixture on top of the cheese crust. Squeeze all of the liquid out of the spinach, and add it to the food processor, along with the remaining cream cheese. Spread this on top, and refrigerate. To serve, unmold and surround with crackers (I like wheat thins; Casey recommends Ritz). Garnish with dried cranberries and pecans.