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: main courses
February’s Cheese, Please! Challenge Round-Up – Cheesy Romance
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Five-hour Kleftiko with Feta Cheese
I’m afraid this recipe doesn’t feature British cheese and that this time I didn’t make the feta myself (although after last year’s home-made feta slime-fest I think my family are probably quite glad). I was going to write a very exciting cheese post but under-estimated how long that particular ‘recipe’ would take to reach its conclusion, so instead I bring you what I had for Sunday lunch: Kleftiko, slow-cooked for five hours with feta cheese.
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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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Home-Made Paneer Cheese in a Balti
Despite the lump of impenetrable mousetrap that was my home-made Cheddar, Colin, I was keen to get back on the cheese-making horse but felt that I need to do some limbering up before I tackled anything too complicated. Paneer is about as simple as cheese gets; milk is curdled and then pressed into a lump. It’s difficult to get wrong and suitable even for an inveterate cheese-mangler like me.
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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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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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October’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Round Up – Hard Sheep’s Cheese
I was apprehensive about choosing hard sheep’s cheese (think Pecorino, Manchego) as this month’s cheese of choice for the Cheese, Please! Challenge. It’s not a cheese that springs to mind when you think about cooking, except perhaps for pasta. And so it was with some trepidation that I pressed the button and issued the call.
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Spenwood Cheese Soufflé with Blackberry Sauce
First of all, let me apologise for what must be the worst photograph of a soufflé in existence. I still don’t have a proper camera after I smashed mine, the soufflé collapsed when I went to find my phone and the addition of the sauce makes it look like some sort of CSI crime scene. But trust me, it does taste really good!
I came up with the idea for this recipe whilst I was on holiday in France. The shops and markets were full of hard sheep’s milk cheeses and one stallholder told me that they are traditionally eaten with black cherry jam. I took a jar away with me and it was an amazing combination, the saltiness of the cheese contrasting with the sweetness of the fruit and sugar. It got me thinking about British combinations; I tried Spenwood cheese for the first time a few months ago, a sheep’s milk cheese made in Berkshire and thought that it would go well with blackberries – so then I just had to wait for the blackberries to appear! It’s slightly different to the French combination, as the blackberry sauce is tarter than the jam but still lovely (it would be interesting to try with a blackberry jam).
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September’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Round Up – Cheddar
This month saw a bumper crop of entries to Cheese, Please! reflecting, I think, both the popularity and versatility of cheddar cheese. I certainly enjoyed trying some of the traditional farmhouse varieties that ranged from grassy-tasting to downright dirty (in a good way). Alas, I’m afraid I did go back on my promise to cut open my own home-made cheddar; I just couldn’t do it. So he lives on down in my cellar, maturing for a few months more.
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Fromage Homage 