Tag Archives: cheshire cheese

Five Counties

Every now and then I see one of those posters advertising an eighties spectacular concert and I’m tempted. The line-up usually features any and all of the following: Rick Astley, Bananarama, Katrina and the Waves, T’Pau and Curiosity Killed the Cat. They sound like fun events, a mash-up of all the pop acts of my schooldays. How can you go wrong, combining all your favourite things together at once? Well, that, dear reader, is what I will explore in today’s post.

I’ll be honest. I didn’t plan to buy this week’s cheese. We’ve all been under the weather in this house (nothing to do with my cheesy cocktail, I can assure you) and anyway I seem to have spent much of my life this week waiting in for deliveries. So I haven’t had a chance to go anywhere other than my local supermarket, which is where I found this cheese. And I’ll admit, when I first saw it, my innate cheese snob rose up and said ‘no’. I did the rest of my shopping but kept thinking: ‘What’s your problem. Not all British cheeses are made from the milk of rare-breed pygmy llamas and pressed between the thighs of Morris Men in Neolithic caves. It’s a British cheese you’ve never tried before. Go and buy it. Then try it.’ So that’s what I did. And here it is, Five Counties:

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Eight Cheeses in One Day…

I love my Fromage Friday adventures but have to admit I’ve been getting impatient. There are so many cheeses I’ve heard about and want to try but there are only so many cheese purchases my hips and thighs can tolerate in one week. A tasting at Leadenhall Cheese back in July introduced me to some new cheeses in more pocket-size portions and so when I saw an event advertised at one of my local delicatessens, Cannon and Cannon, I jumped at the chance (and then did a few more star-jumps, just to build up a nice calorie deficit to be filled by cheese).
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Greek Salad Bread Tarts

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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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Cheshire Cheese Enchiladas in Mole Poblano Sauce

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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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Cheshire Cheese and Marmalade Bread Tarts

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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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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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