Yeh, I know – in this image they’re little, tiny (single-serve) cheese balls.
Balls, spread, call it what you will, you will want to keep this fine little bit o’ cheesy goodness on hand – to spread on crackers, or mebbe on a flour tortilla as a base for a roll up sammich, on some home made bread and then topped with roasted tomatoes, or even popped in the ‘wave for 30 seconds and then drizzled over jerk shrimp tacos – it really is all good; and I have to thank the nice folk at Cooking Light for the recipe.
INGREDIENTS
•2 tbsp buttermilk
•2 tbsp mayonnaise
•1/2 tsp minced garlic
•1/2 tsp white vinegar
•1/2 cup shredded pepper queso blanco
Note: the original recipe called for queso fresca, which is similar, and some would say interchangeable, with queso blanco. In truth, I was expecting a runnier, more sauce-like cheese mixture to drizzle over those shrimp tacos. Still, 30 seconds in the ‘wave solved that problem, and it turns out the blend is much handier in its semi-solid (and easily spreadable) state.
Tumble all the ingredients into your food processor, fitted with the metal blade, and pulse until well blended and creamy.
Hmmm. On second thought, mebbe just use your blender to do this. Mine came out of the processor looking a touch (to me) on the grainy side, so I gave it all a good whizzzz with the immersion blender to smooth things out a bit more.
Worked a treat.
Pour your cheese spread into a container, cover and chill for a few hours or (as always, best!) overnight.
You can serve this as is as a spread, scoop into those (kinda cool, if you ask me) single-serve balls to pass at a party, or what have you.
As I noted above, 30 seconds in the ‘wave will give you a real cheese ‘sauce’ that is pretty darned tasty with jerk shrimp tacos – but I think my favorite way to use this is to add a (very) garlic hit to a sammich – in this case, a roll up with leftover roast beast, again with those roasted tomatoes (cannot get enough of those lately), romaine, a bit of sliced sweet onion, and a dab of honey mustard for the heck of it.
Oh and those jerk shrimp tacos? Check out those details, here.