Brr it’s cold. June and July are the time of darkness, when heaters are always on, and the winter dark seems endless. This is the time for a special kind of cheese, something restorative on a cold day. A perfect … Continue reading Mountain cheeses – a bit of sun on a cold winter’s day
“It’s a Southern thing,” he said, “from Tenesesse, and my friend Greg”. ‘Cos I was startled, my cheesey friends, when my brother suggested a dessert of peaches with blue cheese and yoghurt. But what a marvel! The sweetness of the … Continue reading Barbequed peaches and blue cheese
I spied the first flower on my zucchini plants today and immediately thought of that most summer of conundrums – what to do with a glut of zucchini? So my cheesey friends time to try a recipe I saw months … Continue reading Bring on the summer glut! Grilled Zucchini, Pecorino, and Honey
Nestled like a cupcake, it was perhaps the prettiest cheese I’ve ever seen. A blush of blue-grey mould dustied its outer and its pinched top captured the beauty of a fully-ripened fig. Inside a perfect glossy outer enclosed a matte … Continue reading Finding goat cheese in Provence
Ignite your inner cheesemaker with light and creamy Ricotta. Marvel at the alchemy of lemon juice turning milk into clouds of creaminess you can spread on toast, stuff in pasta with spinach, or combine with eggs as a luscious baked cheesecake. I haven’t made Ricotta in ages after I was frightened off making cheese by a series of spectacular Mozzarella failures. That is, until a recent conversation with my lovely accountant Nina. She didn’t think a failure rate of 3 out of 5 tries was that bad! So my cheesey friends, I’m getting back on the horse, and have returned … Continue reading Ricotta – easy as but totally delicious
Bone white, with a layer of black ash, Gruff Junction’s Darfield is perfect for languid summer days when I hanker for young, light cheeses. Paired with a Sauvignon Blanc I want something to serve in the lead up to a barbeque, rather than at the end of a feast. This is when goat’s cheeses come into their own. And Gruff Junction make some of the best I’ve tasted. Their Darfield is a sexy cheese for summer. The pyramid square of bloomy rind opens up to reveal a dramatic seismic line. Named after the town at the epicentre of the September … Continue reading Gruff Junction Darfield – perfect cheese for summer
There is a reverence to the way my friend Kate breaks Mozzarella di Bufala. The same gentleness of hand, sense of purpose you see in a priest breaking bread. For fresh buffalo milk mozzarella is indeed a special cheese and in this post I want to understand why. First of all though you have to banish all memories of those rubbery gourds of commercial mozzarella, vacuum packed and available in the supermarket. The only similarity is that both are stretchy when heated. One is pizza cheese, mild and factory produced, the other is an Italian icon, a national treasure, made … Continue reading Buffalo mozzarella and Insalata Caprese – heady fragrant joy
Goats cheese and kiwifuit? With basil? On toast? OK Madame Fromage, Cheese Courtesan from Philadelphia, you got me tempted. What an unexpected pairing of our national fruit, and by an American, this combination turned out to be a revelation! A hot looking canapé, simple and fairly inexpensive, it’s bound to become a staple this coming summer. Just smear fresh goats cheese on bruschetta, add a slice of kiwifruit and a jaunty spring of basil. Easy as. Pair with a G & T or a chilled Sav. Delicious. I used Meadowcroft Chevré, a New Zealand-made, French-style, fresh goats cheese made by … Continue reading Goats cheese and kiwifruit – strange but true…
Cow or goat, goat or sheep? Brine or in oil, Danish or Greek? Crumbly or smooth, plain, sun-dried tomato or basil? Each time I buy feta there seems to be a new formulation or iteration! So today I’m on a mission to understand this salty-conundrum – what exactly is feta, and what do I need to know to make a good choice? I’ve googled and wikipeidaed, checked my cheese books, and to be called Feta in Europe a cheese needs to be Greek and made of ewes’ milk, though it can have up to 30% goat. In New Zealand it … Continue reading Fantastic feta – why so many choices?
Selecting a cheeseboard for a group of friends is one of my favourite foodie things. You have to match the cheese to both the folks and the occasion, and of course for us in Wellington, you are limited by the cheeses available. And whilst I love ‘extending’ my palate and those of my erstwhile companions, I also know that some palates are more pedestrian than others. On nights like these I employ the balanced strategy to my cheese board – where I make sure I have one guaranteed crowd-pleaser to balance out an other potentially more difficult cheese. At times … Continue reading The safe and summery hands of Comte
Life and Cheese 