Miso-Marinated Cream Cheese

Cream Cheese Miso-Zuke

Super easy to make with just a few ingredients, with just a little bit of patience, this dish makes a great snack/ appetizer to easily please your guests. All you need to do is to marinade a block of cream cheese in miso+mirin mixture for a few days or longer. This is also a perfect dish to keep stock in your fridge, so you can just slice and serve when you want to quickly entertain your guest or when you need one more little dish. You can enjoy the slices with a little wasabi on the side to enjoy with your sake. Or, this can make wonderful canapés to serve on crackers at a party. And, that’s what we did at a event at TOIRO the other day…it was a big hit!

Vegetarian option

This is a vegetarian dish

Servings

For 1 block of cream cheese

Ingredients

2 tablespoons mirin
1/4 cup (60 ml) miso
1 block (8 oz/ 225 g) cream cheese
Wasabi, for serving
Shiso leaves, optional

Procedure

Heat the mirin in a small sauce pan over medium heat, and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, and let it cool down.
Whisk together the miso and cooled mirin in a small bowl.
Take just just big enough size of a cheese cloth and wrap the cream cheese completely.
In a flat bottom container, spread half of the miso mixture, then place the cream cheese on top (opening side up).
Place the remaining miso over the cream cheese and spread all over so the cream cheese is completely covered in the mixture. Where the cheese cloth is folded in layers, make sure the mixture is permeated between the layers.
Cover with plastic, and let it marinade in refrigerator for 3 days. You can marinade for up to 7 days or so, but please note that the cheese will become saltier with the longer marination.
Carefully unwrap the cheese cloth, take the cream cheese out, and slice to your desired size. Serve with wasabi and shiso leaves.

*For any unsliced leftover can be carefully put back in the original cheese cloth wrap and stored in refrigerator again.

Miso and mirin are whisked together. I made 5 pieces! Each block of cream cheese is carefully wrapped in cheese cloth. They are covered in miso mixture. After 3 days. The miso-marinade cream cheese is ready. Unwrap carefully. For a party, I served the slices on crackers. At home, I enjoy with wasabi.