St David's Day tomorrow, so I'll be handing round the Welsh Cakes at the office. Have already treated myself to some fine cheese.
The commercially produced version of Caerphilly is similar to the many other British "white" cheese - Lancashire, Cheshire and Wensleydale, but Gorwydd Caerphilly is a proper traditional farmhouse version of the cheese. As it ages it becomes creamier in texture and deeper cream in colour. The flavour is more intense as well. Sorely tempted to put together a potato, leek and bacon bake for tomorrow night and embellish it with cubes of Caerphilly - if there's any left!
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Cheese of the week - Montboissie
As can be ascertained from my previous post, I am more than partial to cheese - proper cheese, cheese with flavour, texture and character to set it apart from the flaccid yellow slabs of "mild Cheddar" that are the most pungent the uninformed or lily-livered can stretch to.
I'm not saying I'm a cheese snob - I regularly buy Seriously Strong or Colliers' Cheddar, but I do like to have something a little unusual among the five or so cheeses in the fridge at any given time.
Howard passed by a touring French market on Friday, and bought a selection for me. The stall holder was mildly amused that for once he had a British customer whose response to each product sampled was "Have you got anything stronger?"
Eventually he came away with four fine treats - a lovely dry flavoured but creamy textured Chevre, a slab of Morbier, another mountain region classic, Tomme de Savoie, but a particularly aged one, not so much farmhouse mature, more essence of derelict barn!
There was one final cheese, one that was new to me - Montboissie. It's a semi-soft rinded cheese, a relative of Morbier, but without the ash layer in the middle. It has a sweet pungency, with a slight sharp kick - really does melt in the mouth. Ideal on a slab of slightly warm proper bread.
As it is probably only made on a small scale, I can't promise you'll be able to find some to try. But if you do, get a slab and enjoy it!
I'm not saying I'm a cheese snob - I regularly buy Seriously Strong or Colliers' Cheddar, but I do like to have something a little unusual among the five or so cheeses in the fridge at any given time.
Howard passed by a touring French market on Friday, and bought a selection for me. The stall holder was mildly amused that for once he had a British customer whose response to each product sampled was "Have you got anything stronger?"
Eventually he came away with four fine treats - a lovely dry flavoured but creamy textured Chevre, a slab of Morbier, another mountain region classic, Tomme de Savoie, but a particularly aged one, not so much farmhouse mature, more essence of derelict barn!
There was one final cheese, one that was new to me - Montboissie. It's a semi-soft rinded cheese, a relative of Morbier, but without the ash layer in the middle. It has a sweet pungency, with a slight sharp kick - really does melt in the mouth. Ideal on a slab of slightly warm proper bread.
As it is probably only made on a small scale, I can't promise you'll be able to find some to try. But if you do, get a slab and enjoy it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
