This month saw a bumper crop of entries to Cheese, Please! reflecting, I think, both the popularity and versatility of cheddar cheese. I certainly enjoyed trying some of the traditional farmhouse varieties that ranged from grassy-tasting to downright dirty (in a good way). Alas, I’m afraid I did go back on my promise to cut open my own home-made cheddar; I just couldn’t do it. So he lives on down in my cellar, maturing for a few months more.
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Category Archives: cheese please challenge
September’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Round Up – Cheddar
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September’s Cheese, Please! Challenge – Cheddar
There’s something a bit autumnal in the air, don’t you think? The nights are ‘drawing in’, there’s a chill in the early morning air (and believe me, with two small children I know ‘early’ better than most) and the garden, as well as giving up its tomatoes and chillies, is starting to look a bit sad. We’ve already harvested our first blackberries and have been circling the local sloe bushes in anticipation. After a hot summer of salad and barbeques, my mind is turning to different food; I’m craving something more substantial now, casseroles, pies and soup and bread. And so with all this in mind and with a nod to the changing of the season, I hereby nominate Cheddar cheese as the cheese of the month. Cheddar for me is synonymous with cheesy jacket spuds, the comfort food of my childhood, scoffed whilst watching Grange Hill on a chilly evening. Happy days.
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August’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Round Up – Feta
Feta cheese was on the table for August’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Challenge – and with it the challenge to prove that it’s more than just a salad cheese (although I still got myself a good-natured ticking off from a Greek chap annoyed that I had bracketed it with ‘other salad-style cheeses’ so I hoped that we could do it justice!)
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Greek Salad Bread Tarts
I love bread tarts. Simple to make, no fussy pastry involved and even the most discerning gourmand usually fails to guess they’re eating white bread and butter. I had previously made Cheshire Cheese and Marmalade Bread Tarts but for this month’s Cheese, Please! Challenge I was looking for a way to use Feta.
Greece is one of my favourite countries in the world. My first holiday overseas was to island hop across the Cyclades Islands with my big sister when I was 18. Although the television would have you believe that all young people abroad are staggering about with their vomit-spattered boobs hanging out, we were ridiculously civilized, with not so much as a waiter-snog between us. My memories are often of the food; of fresh grilled calamari, swordfish steaks and thick creamy yogurt and honey for breakfast. We ended up having a food budget of about £5 a day and so lived on Spanakopita (spinach and feta pies) and Greek Salads. (I confess the budget didn’t include beer and ouzo money.)
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August’s Cheese of the Month – Feta (and other salad-style cheeses)
I realise it seems a strange title – ‘and other salad-style cheeses’ – but Feta is a bit of a sensitive subject these days. Granted PDO protection in 2002, true Feta can now only be made from goat’s and ewe’s milk in several mountainous regions of Greece. On the one hand, it seems cheesy poetic justice, given that the first record of cheese-making was probably in Homer’s Odyssey and featured a suspiciously Feta-sounding recipe but, on the other hand, the decree was a blow for many cheese-makers across Europe and beyond who had been making ‘Feta’ for generations and now had to find another name for it.
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July’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Round Up – Soft Goat’s Cheese
Soft goat’s cheese was the choice for July’s Cheese, Please Recipe Challenge; a lovely, summery cheese light enough to grace a salad if the sun deigns to comes out or equally hold its own as part of a comforting casserole whilst we watch the driving rain pelt down. The chèvre gauntlet was laid down but who would come to the party…?
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July’s Cheese, Please! – soft goat’s cheese
In a recent blog post about the Perfect Summer Cheeseboard, the cheesemongers I asked were universal in their love of goat’s cheese in the summer. Variously described as ‘fresh’, ‘citrusy’ and ‘luxurious’, it’s a great summer choice. Think herby tarts and fresh salads, grilled sandwiches and warm frittatas.
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Cheshire Cheese Enchiladas in Mole Poblano Sauce
Mexico was the first holiday that the Other Half and I went on together. He remembers it mainly as two weeks of ensuring ready access to a lavatory but my stomach is made of famously strong stuff and so I have happy memories of fresh guacamole and salsa, bursting with chillies and lime, fish grilled on the beach, scrambled eggs with chilli and the famous mole poblano sauce. Often abbreviated to ‘the one with chilli and chocolate’, there’s so much more to this smoky, rich sauce (which is hardly surprising when you look at the long list of ingredients). Traditionally served over meat, especially turkey, in this recipe it pairs well with the salty, nutty Cheshire cheese.
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Cheshire Cheese and Marmalade Bread Tarts
I always thought that my older sister had invented bread tarts. Sunday afternoon would often find us pressing buttered slices of Mother’s Pride into bun tins and spooning in various concoctions of egg, cheese, bacon and mixed herbs. Bread tarts are perfect for children to make – no messy pastry and you only need a concentration span of about ten minutes. The tart ‘cases’ come out surprisingly crisp and most people never guess that it’s essentially flat toast. Perfect for a picnic or as canapés.
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June’s Cheese, Please! – Cheshire Cheese
What better cheese to kick off the Cheese, Please! Recipe Blog Challenge than with Britain’s oldest cheese, Cheshire?
Claiming a history dating back to the Romans, Cheshire is still the nation’s favourite crumbly cheese. Given the changeable nature of the British summer, it’s also a perfect cheese for cooking with; on a sunny day it can grace salads and partner seasonal fruits but the next day, when sleet smacks down from the sky, it’s great for stodgy bean casseroles and baked spuds. If you’ve never cooked with it before, why not give it a go and share your recipe with others? (Okay, okay, if you live somewhere with absolutely no Cheshire Cheese, other hard crumbly cheeses may be employed…)
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Fromage Homage 