I was leafing through the British section of the cheese-porn that is Juliet Harbutt’s World Cheese Book, when I came across an intriguing-sounding little cheese; named simply ‘Grace’, it was apparently a fresh soft cheese, packed into jars and covered with sunflower oil and herbs and spices. It sounded lovely but I sadly can’t find any trace of the cheese now, nor its producers.
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I love my local shop but do think they should change their strapline to ‘Let Us Surprise You!’ The surprise being that they have run out of semi-skimmed milk but do have preserved lemons or have no fish whatsoever but shelves full of venison sausages. And so it was that earlier in the week I went in to buy some spring onions and left with a packet of samphire. (And no, I don’t live in some very chi-chi area of London where we all breakfast on crayfish and acai berries, just in case that’s what you’re thinking; I just have a weird, if rather lovely, local shop.)
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The sun is finally out, the back doors are flung wide open and it’s time to dust off and light up the barbeque, ready to spend an afternoon trying to stop the baby bum-shuffling into the hot coals and listening to the Other Half swearing in confusion at his raw meat/cooked meat utensils. Yay, summer fun!
Now, I love a sausage as well as the next girl but you can get a bit ‘meated out’ at barbeques sometimes and, as for veggies, there’s surely only so many slabs of burnt halloumi they can face. So I pondered the cheese options for a while and below, for your delectation and delight, bring you some fromage-for-the-flames.
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The Other Half’s step-dad has a wonderful knack for giving random gifts. This week turned out to be no exception and we were presented with a Spitfire jigsaw puzzle, a bag of paraphernalia warning against the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning and half a kilo of walnuts. I’ll spare you the first two but look at these lovelies:
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In Britain, you can spend all summer waiting for summer. Lifestyle magazines might be full of picnics, laid out on gingham table-cloths outside gypsy caravans, spotted bunting fluttering from the trees, but the reality is more likely eating squashed cheese sandwiches in the car whilst the rain hammers on the roof. And if you have small children, there’s no romance to picnics anyway, just constant complaints about grass in sandals, giant bees, the lack of crisps and how ‘disgusting’ your lovingly-prepared quiche is. Really, don’t bother.
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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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It’s hard to be a big fan of nettles; if they’re not taking over your garden, they’re stinging your ankles. But there’s no denying that they’re good for you, packed as they are with vitamins and minerals. In fact, if you believe the herbalists, the nasty nettle can do everything from purify the blood to cure arthritis, increase a nursing mother’s supply of milk and prevent dental plaque. And they’re undeniably trendy these days, packing out the Sunday supplements with recipes for soup, flans and pasta.
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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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Much of this blog so far seems to have seen me wistfully wandering country lanes in a fog of elderflowers and bluebells. But the truth of it is that I live in the city, where urbanity meets suburbia. It’s not very pretty and sometimes it’s a bit noisy and scary. But in just a ten minute walk, the culinary world is at my fingertips. From kaffir lime leaves to mango powder, salt-fish to kecap manis, I can buy pretty much any ingredient from around the world. And above all, I can eat curry. In the space of a mile I can eat Sri Lankan curry, Pakistani curry, Indian curry, Caribbean curry, Nepalese curry, Bangladeshi curry. It’s fair to say if I’m not cooking with cheese, I’m cooking a curry. But this is a blog about cheese. Cheese and curry?
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We were down in East Sussex for the Bank Holiday weekend and, once the rain had stopped and we’d swilled out our tent, the weather was glorious and the countryside lush. If I was a cow in Sussex I’d be pretty happy with my lot. Endless green meadows full of buttercups and clover would fill the belly of the fussiest Friesian. So it seemed only right to hunt out some local cheese. And as we drove though ancient country lanes, their banks spilling wildflowers onto the road, it seemed that there was an oast house round every corner.
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Fromage Homage 