Indian flavors for your bagel
A bagel and cream cheese isn’t just a New York staple; it has been an American breakfast option for decades.
When I first began to visit New York in the 1990s, the amount of cream cheese that delis would smoosh in a toasted bagel would be almost two inches high. It would melt slightly, and I would lick every morsel of it off my fingers in delight.
Before I embraced the more nuanced and funky aged cheeses like gruyere or even Parmesan (aged cheeses are practically non-existent in India), cream cheese became an easy favorite. Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of flavored cream cheeses pop up in delis here in Texas and in New York, but most leave me longing for more flavor.
So, I began to play around with infusing different masalas in cream cheese. The herb masala is one my kids adopted early on; they ate it with crackers or toast, or we put it in a sandwich. The tomato masala version is more of an adult version, especially with the addition of the hot chiles. While I seldom recommend consuming dried turmeric uncooked, in this case, the high fat content in the cream cheese balances the pungent flavors of ginger and turmeric.
Here is a recipe first for creating a spreadable, slightly fluffy, seasoned cream cheese. You can choose three options of masalas to prepare.
Seasoned Cream Cheese
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup plain whole milk yogurt
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 teaspoon sugar
Herb Masala
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, slightly crushed with a rolling pin
• A few kari (curry) leaves
• 1 cup green onions, white and green parts, sliced thin
• 1 serrano chile, minced
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