Guinness and Cheddar Potted Cheese
This versatile cheese spread can also be molded into shapes like logs or balls or SHAMROCKS and coated with finely minced parsley. Pretty food doesn’t have to be hard!
Ingredients:
- 1/2 pound extra sharp Cheddar Cheese (or 1/2 pound Dubliner cheese for a more powerful spread)
- 1/2 cup Guinness Stout
- 1 yellow onion
- 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard powder, like Coleman’s.
- fresh ground black pepper to taste
If there is any rind present on your cheese, trim it away and save it for other purposes (like flavoring soups or currying favor with your otherwise immovable and useless dogs.) Cut the cheese into rough 1/2″ cubes and add to the bowl of a food processor. (If you don’t have a food processor, see alternate instructions below.) Add the stout, onion and black pepper and place the lid on the food processor. Process until the contents are a spreadable consistency. Transfer the potted cheese to a container with a tight fitting lid and refrigerate for at least an hour, but preferably two or more hours to allow the flavors to intermingle. This spread will be good, refrigerated and covered tightly, for at least two weeks. Assuming it lasts that long. Which it won’t.
Serve on crackers, bread, or on *whoops*… I almost told you about tomorrow’s killer potato dish. Do come back. Your thighs won’t thank me, but your tastebuds will!
Instructions for preparing without a food processor:
I won’t lie. Preparing this without a food processor is going to be a bear, but it can be done. Chop the cheese and onion together as finely as you can on your cutting board and scrape into a large, sturdy mixing bowl. Add the stout and pepper to the bowl and use a pastry cutter or the bottom of a jar or measuring cup to squish the mixture together until it holds together nicely when a small amount is pinched together. Transfer to a container with a tight fitting lid and follow instructions above for storage.
