I’ve wanted to make gougères for a long time but was afraid that my limited baking skills would falter when it came to choux pastry. I wrote about Cornish Gouda with Honey and Clover a couple of weeks ago and, on tasting it, I could imagine what a great cheese it would be to cook with: sweet but with interesting savoury notes. So, it seemed like the opportune time to get to grips with gougères. I used this Guardian recipe as my basis.
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I recently wrote about my conversion to cheese with bits in (not that ‘full turkey dinner’ stuff, though, I draw the line at that). Whereas I used to shy away from any cheese that had been ‘mucked about with’ (to quote one cheese professional I met), I am now willing to give such cheeses a try, having found such beauties as Posbury and Vulscombe. So it was that when I recently ordered some cheese, I added this one to the basket:
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Last week I was off to see the Barber family, who make Cheddar cheese down in Somerset. I’ve been to see them before but, as they are the guardians of the last traditional cheese cultures, I wanted to talk to their cultures expert (I’m not very scientific so need such things explaining to me at least three times, preferably with pictures). I thought it only polite to take something suitably cheesy with me, so opted for scones, made with their 1833 Vintage Reserve Cheddar. There’s nothing worse than a cheese scone that isn’t cheesy so the 1833 is a good choice, punchy and tasty as it is.
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I’m off to Devon for Easter and am looking forward to seeking out some little-known West Country cheeses. However, I’ve become aware recently that my selections have been displaying a distinct southern bias. So, to redress the balance before I go away, to give Margaret at From Pyrenees to Pennines a fighting chance at tracking down a cheese (they stock it in Booths!) and to please my mother, this week’s selection is from Yorkshire:
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I wondered if I could pass this off as a pie, in honour of British Pie Week. Pie, tart, pastry case, pastry base, it’s all the same surely? But in my heart of hearts I knew I had a tart on my hands (so to speak). Possibly a flan. But not a pie. Last week’s chunk of Vulscombe seemed to deserve something better than just me secretly scoffing it when the house was empty, plus I had a veggie coming for lunch which always throws me into a pickle. This is super easy, even if you make a mess of the puff pastry like I did and don’t use the right-sized baking tray.
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It’s been a while. I’d like to say that my vacation from the blog has meant that I’ve lost at least half a stone due to eating less cheese. But I appear to have filled the gap with eating chocolate. And cheese but just not getting around to writing about it. Whoops. Anyway, I’m back on the cheese trail and this week I bring you an especially pretty one:
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About this time of year, hedgehogs begin to stir, shivering their bristles and stretching out a little foot or two, in readiness to wake up after their winter slumber. All of which serves as a handy metaphor for this blog which, having snoozed through the dark, short days of December and January, is now ready to spring back into action. (I could at this point have just confessed to being busy, knackered and neglectful but, well, everyone loves a hedgehog, don’t they?)
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I’m sure you have all been on the edge of your seats, waiting to hear of my progress up the allotment waiting list. Well, big news here, I have a plot! I’ve been pretty lucky to inherit a patch that’s been well-cared for until recently, compared to some of the weed forests that are also up for grabs. In fact I’ve been pretty lucky full-stop, considering that I live in London where some waiting lists are 40 years long and people even put their children down to secure an allotment for their future middle age!
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This week brought the exciting news that I have reached number six on the allotment waiting list and so should get my soft city hands on a plot in the next few months. Usually in London, to get an allotment you have to: a) wait for two decades; b) bump off the 73 people ahead of you on the list; or, c) sleep with at least seven senior figures from the borough council. Fortunately for me, one of my local allotments got funding a couple of years ago to regenerate some disused land to create about 70 new allotments and so the waiting list is short and the turnover relatively high.
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When choosing a cheese to write about, I always try and mix it up so there’s a variety of styles, animals and places of origin. I thought I’d done pretty well this week, following a cow’s milk cheddar with a sheep’s milk cheese but then it turns out that I’d managed to pick two cheeses made about half a mile away from each other. So, following Barber’s cheddar, come out of the lane, go past the pub, round the corner to the right and up the hill. There you are: this week’s cheese, Fosse Way Fleece:
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Fromage Homage 