Since we’ve been watching House lately, I was thinking about the phrase “delivery mechanism”. It is used in reference to methods used to deliver drugs into the needy recipient. Around these parts the drug is homemade lox, the needy recipients are our mouths, and the delivery mechanisms vary.
Today the delivery mechanism was a bagel smeared with homemade Scallion Cream Cheese. Normally, I don’t care for scallion cream cheese or any cream cheese for that matter. But, once you make it at home, it’s a whole different story.
This is one of the simplest recipes I’ve ever written, so you should absolutely try it, it’s worth it.
Ingredients
- 8 oz Cream Cheese
- 1.8 oz Scallions, finely sliced (3.1 oz before cleaning, 5 pieces)
- kosher salt
Instructions
- Leave the cream cheese out to soften. Meanwhile, on a plate, lay the finely sliced scallion on a clean paper towel and salt well. Cover with another piece of paper towel and weight down with a second plate on top. Let both the cream cheese and scallion sit for an hour.
- In a bowl, spread the softened cream cheese to make more surface area. Put the scallion on top, and fold into the cream cheese until well combined. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least an hour before serving at room temperature. It should last in the fridge at least three days.
While you’re probably asking yourself “what’s so special about this?” or perhaps noting that it looks like any other scallion cream cheese, we can tell you it taste so much better fresh! You’ll just have to try it to believe.
Oh I believe you. I’ve never made my own scallion cream cheese, but I have made carmelized onion cream cheese–perfect with lox. I’m trying your method, but one question: is it absolutely necessary to salt the scallion? What does it add to the prep?
EMC – Honestly, I haven’t tried it without salting. However, my logic was that I wanted to get rid of most of the moisture from the scallions, otherwise the water will come out in the cream cheese and it will separate. Also, there should be some salt in the final product. Finally, salt will help preserve the whole thing.
I bet it would also be great with whipped cream cheese (of which I’m a big fan of lately, since it’s much easier to spread on than regular cream cheese, and it’s lighter calorie-wise due to its fluffiness).
MK, good idea.
By the way, I’ve been making this recently and I’ve never bothered with trying to get the moisture out of the scallions first—I just add everything in at once, and the final product never seems too watery at all. The salt does still need to be there for flavor, though.
My mom has been making a scallion cream cheese similar to this for as long as I can remember. She always added some sour cream to soften up the cream cheese a bit, and then she added a bunch of paprika to give it a nice pink color. We have always had it as a topping for motzah, but I’m sure it would be great on bagels too.
I’m salting the scallions right now… Should be a yummy companion to the lox i picked up from Fairway this weekend. Next time, I’ll try to make the homemade lox too…
Simple and easy!! love it! Thanks~
Excellent post however , I was wanting to know if you could write a litte more on this topic?
I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit more. Kudos!