It could be argued that February’s Cheese, Please! Challenge was cheesy in more ways than one. But with Valentine’s Day smack in the middle of the month like a big, glowing red beacon plus Godminster giving me some lovely heart-shaped cheese to give away, it had to be a romantic theme. Normal cynicism will be resumed in March. But without further ado, onto the round-up and the announcement of the lucky winner…
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Tag Archives: baking
February’s Cheese, Please! Challenge Round-Up – Cheesy Romance
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Lanark Blue, Celeriac and Walnut Soda Bread
It’s rare that there’s such a thing as ‘left-over’ cheese in our house; it usually denotes that the cheese was a bit ropey in some way, or sometimes it happens with a particularly potent washed rind that no-one else will eat but me and I fail to conquer in time. In the case of this Lanark Blue, I just happened to have bought a whopper of a chunk and I thought that, rather than just scoff it all down in handfuls (which I was doing quite a good job of), I’d see if I could cook something with it to complement its striking flavour.
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January’s Cheese, Please! Challenge Round-up – Comfort Food and Winter Warmers
Crikey. January was certainly a month filled with warm, cheesy comfort. So much for the new year as a time of salad and juicing; I was inundated with people sharing their cheesy recipes. Thirty-four to be precise! I hope I haven’t missed anyone and apologies if I’ve misrepresented your recipe or made your photo look wonky in any way – this month’s round-up was a Herculean task. So without further ado – get yourself a comfy chair and a glass of something, you’ll be here for a while – here’s the round-up (and exciting news about February’s Challenge)…
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December’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Round Up – Festive Nibbles
December was a bumper month for Cheese, Please! entries with a veritable panoply of cheesy nibbles that would make any party go with a bang. From popcorn to parcels, palmiers to pastries and truffles to tartlets, people cooked with parmesan, stilton, goat’s cheese, brie, camembert and cheddar – and even with vegan cheese – to make something for everyone at the buffet table.
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A Marbletree Cheeseboard and Belvoir Crumpets
I was feeling a bit put out the other week when someone ‘fed back’ to me that they thought the design of my blog was a bit awful and the photos were especially dreadful, partly because I always use the same plates. Now, don’t get me wrong, I concentrate on the writing and the cheese, I know I have the design skills of a mole in the dark and I still haven’t got a new camera after dropping mine a few weeks ago. So this feedback wasn’t a surprise. I even agreed. But still, you know, it hurt. So when I got an email from some nice people at a little company called Marbletree, asking if I would like to try out one of their cheeseboards, it seemed like very good timing. A nice new thing to show off the cheese on.
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Barber’s Cheese, Starter Cultures and Success with Soufflés
Contrary to what some of my friends think, I do not, alas, lie on a chaise longue all today quaffing free cheese. Partly because eating cheese lying down is a recipe for indigestion but also because mine is not the kind of blog that gets inundated with freebies. Which is fine by me, as a large part of the fun of it is deciding what cheese to try next.
Recently, however, I got invited to the Good Food Show by the cheddar chaps at Barber’s in Somerset and didn’t hesitate to accept; partly because it seemed free cheese might finally be in the offing, partly because it meant twelve hours on my own without having to attend to anyone’s toileting or answer questions about slugs, but mainly because I had recently found out that Barber’s are the sole guardians of Britain’s traditional starter cultures. For a cheese geek like me, it was an offer too good to turn down.
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November’s Cheese, Please! Challenge Recipe Round-up – Smoked Cheese
November was certainly a smokin’ month (arf!) for the Cheese, Please! Challenge, with a record number of entries. It was great to hear about people using smoked cheese who had never cooked with it before – or even eaten it – creating a variety of dishes which paired the cheese with meat, fish, fruit and vegetables in a veritable harvest festival of smoked cheese loveliness.
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Smoked Mozzarella and Chipotle Cornbread
I was quite excited to find some smoked mozzarella at the local farmers’ market this weekend. I’d been pondering what to make for this month’s Cheese, Please! Challenge but, although I love smoked cheddars, they were leaving me a bit devoid of inspiration. The mozzarella immediately made me think of bread but I wanted to do something a bit different and that’s when I thought of campfires and cowboys and cornbread. All very smoky indeed.
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Roasted Chestnuts, Root Vegetables and Green’s of Glastonbury Smoked Cheddar Cheese Tart
In the days when I had a proper job that involved changing out of my pyjamas, leaving the house and eating something slightly more varied than fishfinger sandwiches every day, there were many things that I loved about central London. The view up the river from Waterloo Bridge never lost its ‘Wow’ factor. The man selling peacock feathers outside Farringdon station always made me smile. And the winter arrival of the hot chestnut sellers counted down the festive season like some kind of hot nut-based advent calendar.
My two favourite spots were outside the British Museum and on the South Bank, halfway between Borough Market and Waterloo (although I think the latter may have now given way to some sort of caramelized nut thingies, tut). It was the evocative smell – all smoky and roasty – that I loved, as well as the ritual of juggling half-burnt nuts from hand to hand and trying to get the skins off whilst trying to avoid the inevitable shard of shell that gets stuck under your thumbnail.
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Pumpkin, Whitmore Ewe’s Cheese and Sage Tart
It would have been perfect timing for me to post up this recipe last week. The pumpkin would have been a shoe-in for Halloween and last month’s Cheese, Please! theme was hard sheep’s cheese. But last week saw me on a remote sheep farm in the Peak District with inadequate Wi-Fi, trying not to shout at to entertain two small boisterous children and fashion firelighters from old copies of the Farmer’s Guardian. It was a remote and beautiful place and if I ever have a mid-life crisis and decide to become a cheese-maker, I think I will move there and make a nice mountain sheep’s cheese.
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Fromage Homage 