Tag Archives: curds

September 30, 2014 · 9:47 am

Making Sparkenhoe Cheese and Disguising Cauliflower

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Red Leicester cheese has got a bad rep and, in many cases, deservedly so. Like many British cheeses, farmhouse production was wiped out by the Second World War and, as a result, most Red Leicester comes in a sweaty, claggy block. But, thanks to David and Jo Clarke, farmhouse Red Leicester has risen, zombie-like from its cheesy grave. I discovered Sparkenhoe last year and was blown away by its rich taste of biscuits and brown butter, surrounded by an earthy rind. If you’ve never tried it, get yourself to a monger forthwith; you won’t be disappointed.
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July 11, 2014 · 10:21 am

Homewood Fresh Ewes Cheese

I said last week, didn’t I, that you wait for months on this blog and then three ewe’s milk cheeses come along at once? Well, here’s the third. I didn’t mean to choose another sheepy one this week but then I saw these little pots of strained curd, quite unlike any cheese I’ve tried before, so couldn’t resist buying one. Plus, it’s the season for fresh sheep’s milk cheese, given that they tend to stop producing milk in the winter months. So here is the pot of ovine temptation that lured me in:

Homewood Fresh Ewes Cheese
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March 30, 2014 · 9:33 pm

March’s Cheese, Please! Challenge Round-Up – Fresh Cheese

I wondered if asking people to make their own cheese and devise a recipe around it would be a step too far. I envisaged the tumbleweeds blowing across my blog throughout the month, as I frantically made cheese myself and cooked it up to make things look busy. But I under-estimated my fellow bloggers big-time and the sound of whey dripping through tea-towels echoed across the globe. A couple of them in particular (no names mentioned… ;)) seem to have become quite hooked on the entire process and I look forward to some magnificent creations clogging up their fridges and cellars very soon. But onto the round-up…
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March 18, 2014 · 2:12 pm

Possibly Poutine

Poutine

Am I a food blogger? Well, I write about cheese which is, after all, one of the major food groups. I cook stuff and stick photographs up of each excruciating chopping, stirring, braising stage for all to see. So I guess I must be.

But on the other hand, some food bloggers always have beautiful photographs of perfectly cooked dishes quivering on vintage china with flowers in the background. They never seem to have disasters where their pie crust cracks down the middle or they leave a sauce simmering to go and break up a row about a mouth organ and come back to find it’s burnt to the bottom of the pan. I’m certainly not one of those food bloggers. And this post bears testimony to that. So before an angry hoard of Canadians takes up arms and heads for the suburbs of Tooting, look, I know it’s not worked out perfectly, okay?
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March 12, 2014 · 1:46 pm

Beetroot, Ricotta and Rocket Tart

Beetroot, Home-made Ricotta and Rocket Tart

Anyone who read last Friday’s post will remember that I was in a grumpy, sorry-for-myself pizza-eating mood. It was therefore pizza that sprang to mind when I received some stunning yellow beetroot in my weekly veg box. Not only is it as pretty as sunshine it also has the advantage of not turning you into Lady Macbeth when you try and peel it or of causing alarm when you go to the toilet the next day (ah, come on, we’ve all done it). This photo doesn’t do it justice but here it is anyway with its traditional cousin.
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March 4, 2014 · 1:42 pm

Yorkshire Curd Tart

Yorkshire Curd Tart

Once more it’s time to venture into the highly-terrifying world of traditional recipes. As I said recently, when I wrote about Kleftiko, when you tackle a traditional recipe you can guarantee someone will always pop up and rubbish one of your ingredients or techniques as anathema to their grandmother’s way of doing things. But given that I’m half-Yorkshire genetically, I’m willing to take them on. (Yes, I use nutmeg! Sue me!)
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March 2, 2014 · 9:41 am

March’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Blog Challenge – Fresh Cheese

It’s March which over here in Blighty means it’s the start of Spring. Everyone is muttering ominously about snow but there are defiant little signs of life popping up everywhere. For instance, here are some tiny daffodils that managed to push their way through the cat poo in my garden; how cute are these:

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February 25, 2014 · 6:13 pm

Home-Made Stilton

home-made stilton

It’s been a while since I bid a fond farewell to my home-made Cheddar, known as Tooting Gold or E-Colin for short. Anyone who has read this sorry tale before will recall that Colin, despite maturing apparently happily down in my cellar for six months was judged (quite literally, by a judge) to be distinctly below par. It was a disappointing result but hardly surprising, given my complete lack of knowledge about cheese-making when I set out to create him. Dr Frankenstein had nothing on me as I cobbled together moulds, picked off hairs and chased away mites to create my cheese monster. Poor Colin.
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November 29, 2013 · 10:48 am

Baron Bigod

I just love the name of this cheese. I wasn’t sure how to say it when I bought it and the nice young chap who was selling it couldn’t enlighten me but I liked to think of it as pronounced like ‘Baron BY GOD!’, preferably by Brian Blessed, whilst dressed as Henry VIII. I was terrified that in the course of researching the cheese I would find out that it was actually pronounced ‘Bee-Go’ or somesuch but fortunately ‘BY GOD!’ it is. Genius.

So, here is Baron Bigod, throwing its voice from the diaphragm, darling, and shaking its magisterial beard:

baron bigod cheese fen farm dairy
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November 27, 2013 · 11:42 am

Home-Made Buffalo Mozzarella

Home-made Buffalo Mozzarella

Okay, stop sniggering at the back, please. The title of the post doesn’t say that I made my own bodyweight in mozzarella or enough mozzarella to keep Papa John’s afloat. I will admit that it’s not the largest haul of cheese ever produced but that’s the thing about artisan cheese, right – quality over quantity. So there.
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