Spring heralds many things. Fresh goat’s cheeses are one of them and rampaging weeds are another. In my garden, the ground elder has started to stretch its legs.
Tag Archives: foraging
St Tola and Wild Leek Fritters
To continue this week’s exploration of all cheeses Irish thanks to Pong Cheese, this recipe pairs St Tola Ash Log with wild tri-cornered leeks. It’s once again the season for wild garlic but, living in London, tracking it down is a lifetime’s work. Tri-cornered leeks, on the other hand, pop up frequently in patches of woodland or people’s gardens. If you are lucky enough to find it, wild garlic would work equally well in this recipe.
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Crab, Samphire and Barber’s 1833 Quiche
Well, it looks like the summer holidays have certainly taken their toll on my blog. Museum visits, cricket in the park and excessive ice-cream consumption (not to mention the small matter of doing some actual work on top) left little time for writing about cheese. And the more you feel guilty about not doing something, the harder it becomes to actually do it after a while. Fortunately, the schools have opened their doors once more and, at the same time, the cheddar-makers at Barber’s asked me if I’d like to develop a new recipe for their flagship 1833 brand. It was just what I needed to get back on the cheese-horse again.
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Wild Garlic and Wilde’s Curd Cheese Cornbread
It’s been a while since I posted a cheesy recipe on here but the lovely chaps at Wilde’s Cheese sent me away with such a mammoth cheese doggy-bag that I had two choices: use all the pieces to build a cheese igloo, or get my cooking cap on. As well as cheese, they also gave me a gorgeous bunch of wild garlic, the last of the season. I can only find wild leeks round here so this was a real treat. Searching for inspiration, I came across and slightly adapted this recipe, which seemed the perfect way to wed up some of my ingredients. The result was lovely, gritty cornbread, studded with melty bits of curd cheese. I halved the quantity of wild garlic in the recipe but even so it packs a punch, so probably not a great first date food. Fortunately, I am old and well past all that malarkey.
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May’s Cheese, Please! Challenge Round-Up – Seasonal and Cheeseonal
Seasonal food was in abundance this month as bloggers paired cheese with everything from asparagus from England to corn in the USA. Sweet, savoury, spicy and smoky all made an appearance in the recipes, as did cheeses from paneer to Cheddar, blue cheese and cream cheese. So, without further ado, here are May’s seasonal, cheeseonal recipes:
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Elderflower Cheesecake
This time last year I made a Sambocade, a medieval Elderflower and Cheese Tart. It was rather lovely but I think only four people ever saw the post and, judging by some of the Google hits I’ve been getting lately, most of them were probably looking for medieval gimp outfits or similar. I was tempted to make it again or even cheat and reblog it but instead – and given that I hate making pastry – I decided to plump for a more modern cheesecake.
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Nettle Gnocchi with Cashel Blue Sauce
I seem to have gone a bit forage crazy, or as crazy as you can when you live in the proverbial concrete jungle. One plant that isn’t fussy about the air quality or proximity to rolling hills is nettles (although I read that if you live in the US, you have to buy them from special hippy stores – is that really right, Stateside folks?) I tried the blue cheese and nettle combination last year when I made Blue Cheese and Nettle Drop Scones and it was surprisingly good; the herbal, slightly fizzy taste of the nettles complementing the tang of the blue cheese.
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Perl Las, Mushroom and Wild Leek Quiche
You can’t move in the food blogosphere at this time of year for wild garlic. I even saw someone on Twitter refer to it as a ‘wild garlic willy-waving contest’ the other day, which did make me titter. But, nevertheless, I was determined to find me some and pair it with some cheese. I’d heard rumours that there was a patch of wild garlic in our local woods (and when I say ‘woods’ please do not imagine anything expansive; Robin Hood would have lasted about ten minutes before he was either discovered or one of the dog-sized rats that live in there ate him alive). But still, it’s a pretty enough spot for SW17.
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Colston Bassett Stilton, Pear, Walnut and Dandelion Salad
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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Blue Cheese and Nettle Drop Scones
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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