Liptauer cheese spread

Liptauer is traditional Austro-Hungarian cheese spread, but Romanians, Czecks and Scandinavians also claim it as their own. It's typicaly served as a snack on rye bread, or sometimes as a filling for different types of appetizers. I like it thickly spread on rye bread with some cornichons and thinly sliced red onions. Oh, and it's great with beer!
My version is made with a combination of cream cheese and cottage cheese. Use the best cottage cheese you can get your hands on. It should be rich and creamy, nothing like some of the clumpy, loaded with additives commercial brands out there. Try your local Farmer's market. Some recipes use capers and anchovy paste and a lot of paprika. I kept it fairly simple. You adjust it to your taste. That way we can all avoid heated arguments or virtual hair pulling, trying to figure out what the stuff should be like or where it comes from. The important thing is where's it's going: your hungry belly!

Ingredients:

250 g cream cheese
250 g good quality pressed cottage cheese
2 small cornichons, finely diced
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
1 tsp caraway seeds (a must)
1/2 tsp Hungarian paprika
1 tsp grainy mustard
pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Serve at room temperature with rye bread or crackers, cornichons and thinly sliced red onions.
Or for a fresh summer lunch try stuffing some sweet cherry tomatoes with the cheese spread and toss them with fresh heirloom salad leaves, radishes, chopped boiled eggs and some herb vinaigrette.

Midnight snack of the week

This gal likes to snack. A lot. Especially before going to bed. Preferably something spicy, hot and full of flavour on a piece of stinky cheese. Usually a nice coriander and cardamom flavoured kiwi or sweet mango chutney will do it, but this time it's something special: my second childhood food crush, mushrooms.(The first being cheese). I found this recipe in an old hand written cookbook of mine. Plus I needed to make good use of some herbes de Provence I had sitting on my spice rack.
It's the perfect midnight snack. Sweet dreams, everybody!





Citrusy mushrooms with herbes de Provence

Ingredients

1 lb small white button mushrooms
juice of 1 orange
juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp grated orange zest
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
150 ml vegetable stock
2 tsp herbes de Provence
100 ml olive oil
1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

Clean mushrooms, peel and cut in half if too big. In a bowl, mix orange and lemon juice, vegetable stock, orange zest and herbes de Provence. Mix well, then add the mushrooms. Heat olive oil over medium heat, add the shallot and garlic. Cook for 2 minutes, then add mushroom mixture and cook until mushrooms are soft, about 10 to 15 minutes. Finally add the parsley. Cool completely. Refrigerate for a few hours to let the flavours develop.