Tag Archives: goat’s cheese

Stuffed Courgette Flowers with Farleigh Wallop

20170716_182222

I can only apologise for more courgettes. But such is my life at the moment. This recipe, however, focuses on the flowers. As abundant as their fruit at this time of year, courgette and pumpkin flowers are all over my allotment. Thanks to an industrious squirrel burying pumpkin seeds all over my garden during the spring, they have also randomly appeared in a selection of borders and pots over here too. Waste not, want not; they are delicious in a risotto with sliced baby courgettes and, of course, stuffed, battered and deep-fried.

Continue reading

10 Comments

Filed under cheese, Uncategorized

Farleigh Wallop

Sometimes the name alone is enough to make you want to try a cheese. This one sounds like a Tory MP but looks far more delicate and refined. Another cheese from the Alex James Presents range (sorry, Liam and Noel), courtesy of Pong Cheese, it really is one of the prettiest dairy products I’ve ever seen.

20170630_134602

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under cheese, Uncategorized

Salad of Sinodun Hill, Broad Beans and Radishes

20170523_134302

I’ve had a little break from blogging for a while, mainly because I quite like absenting myself from all forms of social media every now and then. It’s perhaps not coincidental though that my break coincided with the ‘hunger gap’, the time of year when there is least fresh produce available to pick and eat. It’s been a busy time down on the allotment though, with a feverish period of digging, weeding, manuring and planting- and now we are finally starting to reap the rewards.

Continue reading

3 Comments

Filed under cheese, Uncategorized

Cerney Ash, Ground Elder and Sweet Potato Balls

20170407_155340

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.

Continue reading

12 Comments

Filed under cheese, Uncategorized

Cerney Ash

When tackling any cheeseboard, it makes sense to start with the less, ahem, feisty characters. So it is that, in breaking open the Pong English Selection Box, Cerney Ash was first on the cracker, given that its stable-mates are a mature Cheddar, a Stilton and Stinking Bishop itself.

DSCF1029

Continue reading

8 Comments

Filed under cheese, Uncategorized

Pong Cheese: The English Selection Box

Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’ Henry V, William Shakespeare

It doesn’t get much more patriotic than a Shakespeare quote about our national patron saint – and, in a further twist, Shakespeare’s birthday is also on Saint George’s Day, April 23rd. In truth though, these days most English people would be hard pushed to tell you anything about Saint George other than he took on a dragon. However, in other countries such as Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia and Latvia, St George’s Day is traditionally tied in with the start of the cheese-making season and is a time to bless their livestock. All of which seamlessly leads me into Pong Cheese’s English Selection Box, which would seem to present the ideal way to honour St George, Shakespeare and farm animals all in one.

20170405_163244 (2)

Continue reading

5 Comments

Filed under cheese, Uncategorized

Sharpham Savour

At the risk of recycling and mangling a very laboured analogy, it seems that mixed milk cheeses are like buses – you wait three years and then they all come along at once. Doublet, which I wrote about at the end of last year, is a Somerset cheese made using cow and sheeps’ milk. This week I bring you Sharpham Savour, which uses cow and goats’.

20170131_133942

Continue reading

9 Comments

Filed under cheese, Uncategorized

St Tola and Wild Leek Fritters

DSCF0994To 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.

Continue reading

10 Comments

Filed under cheese, Uncategorized

St Tola Ash Log

With the faint promise of spring hanging in the air, it seemed only right that the first cheese out of the Pong Cheese Irish Selection Box should be the goat’s cheese. It’s at this time of year that fresh goat and ewe’s milk cheeses start to proliferate after a winter break when the animals tend not to give milk. As with the other cheeses in the box, St Tola is not shy and retiring, in appearance or taste:

DSCF0981

Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under cheese, Uncategorized

Pong Cheese: The Irish Selection Box

Writer G. K. Chesterton once wrote that ‘poets have been mysteriously quiet on the subject of cheese.’ It could also be said that, in comparison to Welsh, Scottish and English, this blog has also been somewhat tight-lipped on the particular subject of Irish cheese. Not entirely – Brewer’s Gold and Coolea have both featured – but still, some work to be done to redress the balance. So, with St Patrick’s Day just around the corner, when online cheese specialists Pong Cheese asked me if I’d like to review their Irish Selection Box, it seemed positively serendipitous.

20170304_143920

Continue reading

12 Comments

Filed under cheese, Uncategorized