Cream Cheese Spirals And Cilantro

I made the cream cheese spirals pastry for cell group on Friday, but it was cancelled at the last minute. These babies are easy to make, and absolutely delicious, and I have posted them before here. But since this post was in January 06, before I met all you wonderful fellow food bloggers out there, you may not have read this before.

Anyway, the original name of these are Rugelach, and in the recipe books, are actually sweet. However, I decided to experiment them and make them savoury instead and its proven a hit especially with my kids (my son whacked 6 of these himself).

For the girl in Abu Dhabi with her new food processor:

Blitz together:

2 cups flour
250 gm cream cheese
125gm butter

until it clumps together as a dough. It will be a lovely pliable dough. No need to add any extra liquid. Refrigerate.

Split into 3 portions. Roll out a round, and cut into 8 equal portions. (see the illustration in previous post). Spread your savouries around the outer rim, (such as bacon with cilantro/coriander, corned beef, roast chicken and mozarella, use your imagination), and roll inwards like a croissant. Glaze with egg wash, bake at 180C till browned (approx 15 minutes).

Resist urge to pop hot spiral into your mouth, but they are best served warm.

This is the smoked salmon quiche that I made to order as well, over the weekend.

Since the orderer was domestic, she saved me a slice. My first time attempting smoked salmon, though I have used canned salmon many times. It's rather good.

When I said cream cheese spirals and cilantro, yes, while I did add cilantro to the filling, I actually was referring to my favourite restaurant in town (when someone else is paying), Cilantro. They'll be moving from Micasa to the Gardens soon I hear. Anyway, since I recently blogged about this place I shall not go into much detail. Occasion was rich friend in town who wanted to give a treat to 3 birthday girls in one fell swoop.




The truffle souffle as an appetiser. Deeeeeeevine!!!!



The complimentary white bait something something. It looked terribly fishy, but tasted VERY good. No fishy taste at all.



The unagi and foie gras. Sin in its full glory. Absolutely stunning. If it were a woman, it would be Aisywara Rai.



Pan Seared Scallops With Rocket and Pear. Now, they are exceedingly generous with their plump juicy scallops. 5 in total, seared to PERFECTION. There is blue cheese in the dressing, which is gorgeous, but I can imagine, not everyone's cuppa tea.



Braised Ox Tongue with Pan Seared Foie Gras. Nuff said about this dish in the previous post.




Hokkaido Scallops with Pan Seared Foie Gras. Truth be told, the appetiser scallops were better. The hokkaido scallops, though humoungous, were a bit leathery, and not as sweet as the smaller cousins.



Pan Seared Foie Gras (gosh, I should just abbreviate it to PSFG) with duck breast. The breast (the duck's one, that is) was tender and cooked to perfection. I notice duck can be a bit tough. But this one was tender as raw bullet wound.


The special of the day, a half lobster with pasta. The lobster was nice and crunchy. Didn't try the pasta though. The sauce was very rich, and complemented the lobster well.



Bamboo fish, or Soon Hock, to the uninitiated. Didn't try this, but Godma said that it was overcooked. Pity. I'd have sent it back, actually, at an establishment like this.



One must of course have the mandatory dessert platter that allows you a choice of 4 desserts. Do the math. Individual desserts all about RM30. Platter is RM90, for 4. And they give you full size portions. Not scaled down miniatures that require a magnifying glass to locate. The fig tart was yummy. Good quality ice cream, which the host identified as Haagen Daz. My palate not so sophisticated la, cant really tell. Unless it was Walls. Then can.


I forget what this is. A nougat something something. Okay lah, I felt the pastry layer could have been better.