We like to think we live in somewhat of a rainbow hued world, with Mac Daddy’s German/Bohemian roots and my Indian heritage. We all match different colors in the Crayola box of multicultural crayons. Mac Daddy, Bird, Deal, and I are a veritable rainbow of skin tones that tell a small part of our tale.

As you might guess, I think food is a huge element in telling our story. Food is far more than sustenance. When Mac Daddy and I got married our dear friend Cathy tucked a small treasure into the box that carried the pottery vase she gave us as a wedding gift. Packed into the folds of Tiffany blue tissue paper was a small spice jar of curry and two Green Bay Packers shot glasses with a lovely scrolled note tied in red, white, orange, green, and yellow ribbons (the colors of the Indian flag and the Packers). Cathy told us to remember that what makes us special as individuals makes us strong as a couple and to never forget our roots. Ever since then we joked that when we had children we would start a band called the “Curried Cheeseheads.” Never mind that we are both tone deaf and cannot play an instrument, though I did have a stint in an air band in high school. We are banking on having talented children, and so far Bird can play a mean Star Spangled Banner on the piano. When we all play Guitar Hero or LEGO Rock Band we pretend we are the Curried Cheeseheads. For now Bird and Deal have bought into this silliness, but I fret that soon they will roll their eyes at this long running joke.

I am determined to keep the Curried Cheeseheads alive. I got an opportunity to create a unique recipe using the new Kerrygold spreadable butter (in a reduced fat version too) that has no weird chemical stuff to make it spreadable; I’m pretty sure you can pronounce every ingredient: cream and salt. In the spirit of rainbows and Curried Cheeseheads, I bring you…drum roll please…

Curried Cheesehead Butter

1/2 tub of room temperature Kerry Gold spreadable butter
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
pinch of hot Indian chili powder or cayenne pepper
naan bread (The frozen Tandoori Naan from Trader Joe’s is pretty good!)
1/2 cup shredded gouda cheese, preferably from Wisconsin

Add the curry powder and chili powder to the butter and mix thoroughly. At this point you can either spread it on the naan, sprinkle with cheese, and bake until cheese is melted or you can melt the butter in the microwave and brush it onto the naan. It’s a personal preference, and I like to brush on the melted butter. There is just something decadent about golden melted butter. The taste will be the same either way. Serve with a cold beer…from India. A Bollywood Polka would only make this even better, but I bet A.R. Rahman isn’t composing any such thing…yet.

I don’t think the Irish can claim ownership of rainbows just because little men dressed in green are purported to find pots of gold at a rainbow’s edge. But I do know that those pots don’t have coins; they’re filled with Kerrygold butter.

 

A word about butter

All butter is not created equally. Don’t even buy the fake stuff. That stuff should be called I Can’t Believe People Buy This and Think It Tastes as Good as Butter. Kerrygold is the gold standard in butter. Sorry, I can’t stop with the gold bit. I keep Kerrygold stocked at all times. Nothing is tastier on a warm piece of bread out of the oven or melted on toast with apricot jam spread on top. As my friend Jennifer so eloquently puts it: Life is short. Eat the damn butter.

 

Disclosure: I created this recipe for a Kerrygold recipe contest. All ideas and opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this post, but the fine folks at Kerrygold did send me a few tubs of butter to test out. Let’s just say that the butter didn’t last long.