Not sure what precise post you are quoting from: However, I suspect that my question - was it directed to you? - was about whether the cheese under discussion tasted better eaten now or when/whether it had been allowed to age - or ripen - further?
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The Cheese thread.......
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Not sure what precise post you are quoting from: However, I suspect that my question - was it directed to you? - was about whether the cheese under discussion tasted better eaten now or when/whether it had been allowed to age - or ripen - further?
Yes. I thought you were referring to the Lancashire bomb cheese but I believe you were actually talking about the brie. Young brie is firm, but not too firm. As it ages, in this case a mesh paper and bamboo container, the rind thickens and the interior of the wheel loses its firmness. It won't be an epoisse in terms of spreading ability but it'll be quite delicious.
Okay: No, I was not referring to Brie: I know this cheese very well.
Having gone back and re-read the previous posts, I am actually referring to the Lancashire Bomb cheese: This is a cheese I am not familiar with.
Oh. In that case I'm afraid I can't give you an answer. I've never had them before. I'd seen them on the telly a very long time ago. One of those travel shows popular in the early part of the 2000s.
Fair enough.
Thank you.
In that case, I shall keep an eye out for this cheese if - and when - I am in a region where I might be in a position to lay hands on it.
No need to do so. I did some shopping research. Waitrose sell it.
Thanks for your shopping research - Waitrose wasn't even on my radar for cheese or cheese related products.
They're a commercial outlet. Though I'm sure if you spoke to your own cheesemonger, if you've got one, you can get a much better deal than what they're charging. Which was 20 pounds for a kilogram, I believe. You can also check in with the company that makes the cheese bombs and find out which retailers carry it in your area.
Here's the thing: I rarely - that is - hardly ever - shop in supermarkets. Yes, they are a necessary evil, but I rarely darken their doors.
And there are some things I would never buy there - and they include fresh meat, fish, fruit, and er, um, cheese.
Oh, and alcohol. Milk......
But, thanks for the suggestion.
Well, I rather like the fat - that serves to give some cheeses much of their flavour; besides, cheese is seriously good (and tasty) protein.
I quite like a thick slab of feta with crushed walnuts and olive oil. Maybe some crushed black pepper on top. Served with crusty bread, too. I actually like egg white omelettes with spinach and feta, maybe mushrooms too if we've got some. I usually make a custard out of the yolks or put them aside for some bread or cake.
With leftover blues, I make a seriously divine pasta sauce (blue cheese and double cream) served with greens (either spinach, or salad greens with a sharp vinaigrette); the original recipe came from the justly revered (by me, at least) writer Nigel Slater, but I have tweaked it (usually depending on what blue cheese is left - once, I made a sauce with four types of blue cheese - which was simply scrumptious) on occasion.
I'm a lover of Cheese, any type but my faves have to be the stronger cheeses (and the smellier ones too!)
A few years back I went to Le Gavroche a 2 michelin star restaurant in London and this was the cheese trolley!!!
Heaven!!!
A few years back I went to Le Gavroche a 2 michelin star restaurant in London and this was the cheese trolley!!!
Heaven!!!
Wow.
Now that is what I call a cheese trolley. Let me loose on it......I'd skip dessert (willingly) to be able to pay full attention to a cheese trolley such as that.
Any particular favourites from that stunning looking cheese trolley?
Now that I'm back home will have to try that paste sauce. What paste do you have with the sauce?
This is one of the few recipes - as a homemade recipe - one that is entirely home cooked - meal that I can get on the table - from start to finish in around 25-30 minutes, so it is handy for a tasty supper that can be made quickly.
Most other meals - even the fairly quickly made dishes - take between half and hour and an hour to prepare.
Personally, I love it as I am a huge fan of blue cheese sauce, and am surprised that apart from a specific area of northern Italy - or Croatia (the Istrian peninsula served versions of this Gorgonzola sauce almost everywhere) - you will rarely find it even in restaurants.
They tend to serve creamy mushroom sauce with pasta instead - which is seldom anything like as good.
And, when you do find it in restaurants, they tend to serve it with gnocchi, which I find a bit heavy. Restaurants often also serve it with walnuts.
For vegetarians: This is a dead easy, extraordinarily tasty vegetarian dish, rib sticking food on a cold, miserable day.
Well, to answer your question, @JamesMike - it goes awfully well with the fettuccine style of pasta, but I have also served it with penne - as both penne - or orecchiette are very good at freighting sauce....as are the butterfly shaped pasta shells, too.
Here, with this dish, I tend to have the pasta and the salad (and or spinach) almost - that is, almost - ready by the time I start to prepare the sauce, because that takes little more than five minutes.
The trick is to melt the cheese first, on a low heat, a very low heat.
(When I first made it, I made the mistake of heating the double cream first - the cheese never melted properly - remaining lumpy).
So, cube your cheese, and drop it - as it is - into a heavy bottomed saucepan on a low heat. With Gorgonzola, you just remove the rind and drip - or drop - large bits of the cheese into the saucepan.
Stir it as it melts, and you want it completely liquid. Then, when it is completely liquid, you add the double cream, stirring it all the while. Nigel gives actual, quantities, - I taste and test as I go along, but I like a generous helping of this sauce. You don't need to salt it (I assume that you will have salted the pasta water) - as blue cheese is quite salty enough.
Drain your pasta - reserving a little of its water. I tend to dress it in a little olive oil and black pepper before returning it to its pan with a little - a few table spoons - of its cooking liquid. Then, add the pasta sauce to it - which should all be nice and hot, and mix. Serve.
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I will give it a try this week and let you know how it turned out.
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I would just order the cheese cart! I can smell it from here!
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I would just order the cheese cart! I can smell it from here!
Enjoy.
And a nice glass of wine - white or red - is a good accompaniment.
The other thing is, once you do this recipe a few times, it is so easy and tasty it becomes second nature - it can become one of your 'effortless' dishes.
There was a time when I would have this sometimes as often as once a week, certainly every fortnight.
I all ready copied and pasted into my receipt folder. Will pick up a bottle of CdP of the white variety.
Also, in winter, I preheat the plates.
When using different types of blue cheese together - it is not unusual for me to have say - Gorgonzola and either Stilton or Cashel Blue, or Blue d'Auvergne together for this - obviously, they take different times to melt completely (remove their rind). Harder cheese first, then the Gorgonzola.
A mix can be very tasty - I once used four different types of blue cheese, and it was sublime.
Two things: You will use more cheese than you think you will - if you have a lot left over, or to use up - this is a great way of doing that (and allows you to buy fresh blue cheese). Be generous with the cheese.
The other thing is the one single, solitary sole caveat concerning that last point: Precisely because it is so sharply salty, Roquefort is the one blue cheese I am ever so slightly parsimonious with when using it - if I have some to use up.
Nigel recommends Cashel Blue, Blue d'Auvergne, Gorgonzola, Forme d'Ambert, etc.
If I want a warm vegetable with the pasta & blue cheese sauce, I will serve wilted spinach or chard.
Otherwise, a green salad.
The spinach/chard recipe is my adaptation of a Nigel recipe.
Wash them, remove their heavy stalks, shred them into large rough pieces.
He then adds them to a heavy-bottomed saucepan - one to which you had a tight-fitting lid - no water or anything else, the only liquid is a few drops of water clinging to their leaves from when you washed them. Place the lid on the saucepan - again, you do this on a very low heat - for you will steam them.
My tweak is sometimes I will dice - exceedingly finely - a clove or two of garlic, sauté that gently in butter (no olive oil) until it is soft, and then add the shredded spinach leaves, with their drops of water and slam the lid on the saucepan.
They steam and wilt, and turn a bright green colour; they are deliciously soft and go very well with the blue cheese sauce and pasta.
My other alternative is a dish of organic mixed leaves, or salad greens, dressed with a nice vinaigrette.
Otherwise, a green salad.
The spinach/chard recipe is my adaptation of a Nigel recipe.
Wash them, remove their heavy stalks, shred them into large rough pieces.
He then adds them to a heavy-bottomed saucepan - one to which you had a tight-fitting lid - no water or anything else, the only liquid is a few drops of water clinging to their leaves from when you washed them. Place the lid on the saucepan - again, you do this on a very low heat - for you will steam them.
My tweak is sometimes I will dice - exceedingly finely - a clove or two of garlic, sauté that gently in butter (no olive oil) until it is soft, and then add the shredded spinach leaves, with their drops of water and slam the lid on the saucepan.
They steam and wilt, and turn a bright green colour; they are deliciously soft and go very well with the blue cheese sauce and pasta.
My other alternative is a dish of organic mixed leaves, or salad greens, dressed with a nice vinaigrette.
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Chard is brilliant with pasta. I enjoy it with linguini, olive oil, garlic, and plenty of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Although, your blue cheese dish sounds excellent.
Anyone have good recipe for spaghetti carbonara? I know that this is a recipe that requires considerable quantities of (very good) Parmesan (that is, proper Parmigiano-Reggiano) cheese - the real stuff, that you buy as a block and grate yourself - but what else do people use when preparing this dish?