“I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.”

John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces

We went to visit some old-slipper type friends not long ago. These are the sort of friends with whom you can pick up a conversation left off a year or so previously, almost seamlessly.

We arrived in time for a sparkling Pimms, served with a stunning dip – translucent flecked bright orange glaze with a creamy layer beneath. It was dangerously more-ish and looked as if many hours had been spent in the kitchen.

I asked how she’d done it (the man of the house limits his culinary activities to growing vegetables). And she told me it was a cinch – a tub of garlic and herb Philadelphia with a varnish of sweet chilli sauce et voilá!

Here is the recipe.

Recipe for cream cheese and sweet chilli dip

For four to six

Ingredients

• 170g/6 oz tub cream cheese with garlic and herbs
• 4 tbsp sweet chilli sauce (she used Blue Dragon)
• Robust crackers to scoop it up with – I used Seggiano Classic or you could use plain round white rice biscuits (not rice cakes, the little hard white discs)

Method

1. Simply spread the cream cheese over the bottom of a wide-based bowl.
2. And spoon over the sauce.
3. Serve with the crackers.

This post is dedicated to Maria Brown.