C is for: Cheese, Chutney, Curry, Cashews, & Cane Sugar

Remember how much I love champagne?

Well, I just might love cheese even more.

It’s a tough call.

Either way, I especially love Brie. And I especially love it made this way.

Since this is a recipe for Baked Brie, I was going to do it for “B” week, but when I realized all five ingredients start with the letter “C,” I decided to roll it over to this week.

I originally learned this recipe from my good college friend, Brooke Ware. But since she lives in Seattle, and I was living in San Diego at the time, I adopted it as my own go-to party recipe.

It became so popular among my friends that I basically couldn’t come to a party without bringing this delicious appetizer.

You’ll need these five ingredients. (Well, technically you’ll need bread or crackers too, so six).

Take some curry powder and rub it all over the rind of the cheese. Don’t be shy about it either.

Roughly chop up some cashews. I actually found curry cashews at Rainbow Grocery in the bulk section, so I decided to try them out. I was worried it might be curry overload, but I thought they were awesome!

Now comes the chutney. I went with a peach one from Kozlowski Farms in Sonoma, but you could use mango chutney or whatever flavor you want. Place the Brie in a baking dish and spread the chutney on top of the whole wheel of cheese. (By the way….whenever I say “whole wheel of cheese,” I can’t help but think of this scene from the movie Anchorman, but that’s not really appropriate for this post :)).

Anyways, top it with the cashews, and sprinkle a little bit of whole cane sugar over everything. (Or you could use brown sugar. I just happened to have whole cane sugar on hand for another recipe…and it started with “C”). You don’t need very much, in fact, you could probably leave it out and be OK. Pop it into a pre-heated oven and cook for about 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

If you are using bread as your “vessel” of choice for the brie, go ahead and slice that up now.

Carefully transfer to a serving plate. It’s OK if the cheese starts to ooze out, as long as it makes it to the plate first. Serve with french bread, mini toasts, or water crackers.

And speaking of champagne….head over to my friend Kim’s wine blog to check out a good pairing for this cheese. She’s going to try to pair wine with one of my recipes once a week, so stay tuned!

Chutney Baked Brie Appetizer
[printable recipe]

Ingredients:

1 wheel of Brie cheese
1-2 tablespoons curry powder
2-3 tablespoons chutney (peach, mango, etc)
1/2 cup chopped cashews (or pecans, walnuts, etc)
1-2 teaspoons whole cane sugar (or brown sugar would work too)
bread, crackers, mini toasts, or sliced apples (for gluten free)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Rub brie rind
with curry powder. Place in an oven safe baking dish and spread with
chutney. Top with chopped nuts and sprinkle a little sugar on top.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. (You want the cheese to be melted inside the rind)
Transfer to plate and serve with crackers, bread, or fruit.

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