Tag Archives: snacks and party food

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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Staffordshire Oatcakes with Chaize (Cheese)

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It’s August 8th! Happy Staffordshire Oatcake Day! I’ll bet you’ve all been drooling in anticipation of this one, cheese-graters at the ready, haven’t you? No? No. Well, I guess that’s because no-one outside of Staffordshire has heard of this mighty regional delicacy. In truth, few people outside of Staffordshire seem to have heard of Staffordshire, never mind its lovely oatcakes; I say this as someone who has spent the many years since leaving for university repeating the mantra, ‘It’s between Birmingham and Manchester…have you been to Alton Towers?’ And I can go to the supermarket and buy French sticks, Indian naan breads, Italian focaccias, German rye bread…but can I get me an oatcake south of Tamworth? No, sirree.
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July’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Round Up – Soft Goat’s Cheese

Soft goat’s cheese was the choice for July’s Cheese, Please Recipe Challenge; a lovely, summery cheese light enough to grace a salad if the sun deigns to comes out or equally hold its own as part of a comforting casserole whilst we watch the driving rain pelt down. The chèvre gauntlet was laid down but who would come to the party…?
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Bath Soft Cheese Preserved with Oil and Herbs

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I was leafing through the British section of the cheese-porn that is Juliet Harbutt’s World Cheese Book, when I came across an intriguing-sounding little cheese; named simply ‘Grace’, it was apparently a fresh soft cheese, packed into jars and covered with sunflower oil and herbs and spices. It sounded lovely but I sadly can’t find any trace of the cheese now, nor its producers.
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Fennel Goat’s Cheese, Tomato and Samphire Tart

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I love my local shop but do think they should change their strapline to ‘Let Us Surprise You!’ The surprise being that they have run out of semi-skimmed milk but do have preserved lemons or have no fish whatsoever but shelves full of venison sausages. And so it was that earlier in the week I went in to buy some spring onions and left with a packet of samphire. (And no, I don’t live in some very chi-chi area of London where we all breakfast on crayfish and acai berries, just in case that’s what you’re thinking; I just have a weird, if rather lovely, local shop.)
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Les Greedy Cochons Secret Supper Fondue Club

When I received a message from Les Greedy Cochons inviting me to their Secret Supper Fondue Club, I’ll admit I felt apprehensive. Firstly, it seemed to go against every aspect of Stranger Danger that had ever been drummed into me:

‘Hello, you don’t know us or even where we live but would you like to come for tea?’
‘Ooh, thank you very much. Do you have some puppies too?’

Secondly, I’ve been pretty much under house arrest by small people for the last five years and have lived my life vicariously through copies of Time Out. Secret Supper Clubs all looked to be inhabited by consummate hipsters – the sort with the attire and facial hair of nineteenth century coal magnates or post-war lindy-hoppers. The last time I was approaching cool The Levellers were in the charts and I just wasn’t sure that was going to cut it.

But then I thought about all the cheese, brushed the sick off the shoulders of my cardigan and headed off to the wilds of North London, clutching only an A-Z and a bottle of dry white wine.
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Three Cheese Focaccia Bread

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In Britain, you can spend all summer waiting for summer. Lifestyle magazines might be full of picnics, laid out on gingham table-cloths outside gypsy caravans, spotted bunting fluttering from the trees, but the reality is more likely eating squashed cheese sandwiches in the car whilst the rain hammers on the roof. And if you have small children, there’s no romance to picnics anyway, just constant complaints about grass in sandals, giant bees, the lack of crisps and how ‘disgusting’ your lovingly-prepared quiche is. Really, don’t bother.
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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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Roasted Squash and Blue Cheese Arancini

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Arancini roughly translates from Italian as ‘little oranges’ which is what these little stuffed rice balls resemble. Traditionally eaten in Sicily, arancini are balls of sticky rice, stuffed with fillings such as ragù, cheese or vegetables and then coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

It doesn’t seem to matter how much weighing and measuring I do when I cook risotto, I still end up with enough to feed an advancing army. I also have a violent aversion to defrosted risotto; there’s something just so soggy and sad about it. So when my latest batch of squash risotto resulted in a spectacular surplus even by my standards it seemed an ideal opportunity to make arancini and marry the sweetness of the squash to the sharpness of a blue cheese stuffing. This recipe will make about 20-25 balls.
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