Breakfast? Oh, yes. We had breakfast twice today. Having breakfast is unusual enough around here, but two? Well, there were overripe bananas and there was this dip that was in now-or-never limbo. So, first, we had banana pancakes made with sour dough discard and then we had this dip an hour and half later.
Been planning on making this for days to prove that cheese-based dip can be fantastic even when there is no baking involved. And I wanted to be able to do that while there was still some of the rustic bread that Alex baked. No nice bread, no dip.
And, yes, you read that right. Unlike most, this cheese dip was not baked. But there is a bit of cooking involved. To be more precise, the cooking consists of stovetop heating and a bit of microwaving. Whether those two things fall within the definition of cooking may be debatable.
So, a little stovetop heating. Unless you’re okay with raw garlic. I personally don’t have any problem with it. But I have read that raw garlic stored in oil can result in botulism. Since this dip can be a make ahead party dish, I recided that heating the garlic is the safer alternative.
So, to make this cheese dip, I started by heating butter, pounded garlic and finely sliced scallions in a small pan. The heating did not take long. I just waited until the butter melted which meant that the temperature had reached a point that made the garlic unlikely to cause botulism. Allowing the scallions to soften didn’t hurt either.
The second part of the cooking is microwaving. I just heated cream cheese, butter and sun-dried tomatoes in the microwave. Forty seconds and the butter and cheese were soft enough to be whisked together to make a smooth paste.
The garlic and scallions, together with the butter in which they were heated, were added to the cream cheese mixture, and everything was whisked until smooth. And the dip was done!
No seasonings? Cream cheese is already salty. And I used salted butter. So, more salt would have been overkill. What about lemon juice? Sun-dried tomatoes are already tangy and the overall flavor is really intense. So, again, lemon juice would have been superfluous. Add at your discretion. What about ground pepper? Again, add at your discretion.
Cream cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and scallion dip
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons salted butter (at room temperature) divided
- 4 cloves garlic peeled and pounded
- 3 to 4 tablespoons finely sliced scallions
- 125 grams cream cheese (at room temperature)
- 1 tablespoon chopped sun-dried tomatomes (see notes)
Instructions
- Place two tablespoons of butter, all of the garlic and scallions in a small frying pan.
- Heat until the butter melts. Stir a few times then take the pan off the heat and cool.
- Place the cream cheese, remaining four tablespoons of butter and sun-dried tomatoes in a microwave-safe bowl.
- Heat in the microwave oven on HIGH for 30 to 40 seconds (see notes) or just until the butter and cream cheese are soft enough to be whisked.
- Whisked the cream cheese, butter and sun-dried tomatoes until the mixture has the consistency of mayonnaise.
- Drizzle the butter, garlic and scallion mixture over the cream cheese mixture and whisk until no trace of melted butter remains.
- Top with greens (we added cilantro and more scallions) and serve at room temperature with toast or crackers.
