A Year in Cheese – Now isn’t that a thought!

3 Comments December 15, 2015 chilliandmint

The brothers Alex and Leo Guarneri who run the London fromagerie ‘Androuet’ and the restaurant next door have just brought out a rather delicious sounding cookbook called ‘A Year in Cheese’. Along with their Italian chef Alessandro Grano they have put together a collection of their favourite recipes incorporating cheese. Much like vegetables, fruit and meat, cheese is also seasonal and it is with this in mind that the brothers have come up with some tasty cheese dishes to whet the appetite all year round.

‘Images from A Year in Cheese: A Seasonal Cheese Cookbook by Alex and Leo Guarneri, Recipes by Alessandro Grano. Photographs by Kim Lightbody. Published by Frances Lincoln.’

Those who love ‘kinfolk’ style, myself included, will be naturally drawn to this recipe book. I particularly love it’s matt, rustic, moody photographs and recipes that look homely and inviting. Just browsing through the book, I love the sound of the ‘portobello mushrooms stuffed with walnuts and gorgonzola’, ‘french onion soup with 18-month-old comte’, ‘baked camembert with rosemary, honey and almonds’, ‘green and white asparagus with red Leicester crisps with sauce vierge’. The ‘watermelon and feta’ combination is always a winner and the brothers have come up with their own take on one of my favourite salads – see below. Salty, sweet with a blast of colour – what’s not to love!

‘Images from A Year in Cheese: A Seasonal Cheese Cookbook by Alex and Leo Guarneri, Recipes by Alessandro Grano. Photographs by Kim Lightbody. Published by Frances Lincoln.’

The book is split into chapters according to seasons and then there is a separate chapter on cheeseboards and complementary wines. The book is original – I can’t think of another one focused on cheese in quite the same way – so for any cheese lover it is certainly a great addition to their recipe book library.

As a christmas present, I think I would probably pair it with an interesting cheese and a fancy cheese spoon – how about this one – to complete the well thought through gift. I know that I would love to receive a gift like that.

I decided to make their ‘tomato tarte tatin with Saint Nicolas De La Dalmerie’. It comes under the summer chapter, so perhaps I should have chosen one of the winter dishes because the cheese suggested was clearly not going to be in season. As such I replaced it with and English ‘Rosary plain’, which is a mild and creamy fresh cheese made from pasteurised goats milk.

The recipe was delicious and quite frankly perfect for any time of year, the only thing that I need to work on was making the puff pastry rise better, as mine had not puffed up as well as the one in the photo in the book. I fear that there was too much balsamic vinegar making the pastry a little too wet to puff as much as it would like. As such I have made some alterations to the recipe.

The olive oil that I like to use is the Nudo variety, which make a whole range of wonderful olive oils that come in eye catching tins. The extra virgin comes in the green tin (I used this one for this recipe), the yellow tin is infused with lemons and the red tin has notes of chilli. The olive oils themselves make great gifts – see here for the trio selection, but I am also a huge fan (and have been for a number of years) of their gift idea where you ‘adopt’ an olive tree and then receive extra virgin olive oil through out the year. The gift that keeps on giving – perfect. Click here to learn more about the olive tree adoption.

Tomato Tarte Tatin with English Rosary Goats Cheese

Serves 4-6

500g cherry tomatoes, halved (you can use larger just slice them thinly)

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

Nudo olive oil, for drizzling

salt and pepper

1x320g sheet of chilled puff pastry

1 egg, whisked

50g English Rosary goats cheese

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees (375 degrees Faranheit/gas5) and butter a tart tin. I used my regular 8 inch diameter cake tin. In the book they suggest using 2 6 inch diameter tart tins.
Place the tomatoes in a bowl of boiling water for 10 seconds and then move them to a bowl of cold water. The skins will then peel off easily.
Half the tomatoes and then drizzle them with the balsamic vinegar, sugar, olive oil and fresh thyme.
Arrange the tomatoes neatly in the tin and then drizzle the remaining juice over them and add salt and pepper.
Place a pastry topping over the top of the tomatoes and prick with a fork. Gently brush the pastry with the whisked egg.
Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes, so that the pastry has puffed and bronzed.
Remove from the oven and then place a plate of the top of the tin and turn upside down so that the tomato tarte tatin comes out.
Crumble the goats cheese and place under a grill for around 10 seconds so that it begins to melt.
You can scatter with a few rocket leaves and pine nuts if you have them to hand.

Perfect served hot or at room temperature.

Strawberry, Black Pepper and Spinach Salad with a Red Onion Balsamic Dressing

4 Comments August 20, 2014 chilliandmint

I’ve been meaning to post this glorious recipe for ages. It is seriously good and takes no time to whip together. If the truth be told I’ve been eating it all summer, but each time I forget to photograph the food until it’s too late. Today I was ready with my camera to take a few snaps before gorging on this delicious lunch.

It’s perfect if you want to impress friends as it’s probably a flavour combination they’ve not eaten before so it will take them by surprise…..in a good way.

It would also work really well for BBQ gatherings or as a starter for a dinner with friends. The flavour combinations of freshly ground black pepper and strawberries is a surprising winner. The dish in itself is sweet, salty and full of umami – read my article here to learn more about umami.

If you are not able to get hold of fresh spinach, rocket also works really well.

I originally came across a similar recipe in fellow food blogger Heidi Swanson’s book ‘Super Natural Everyday‘, which I adore to dip into from time to time.

Here is my version of the recipe. Let me know how you get on by leaving a comment below. I love to hear from my readers.

Strawberry, Black Pepper and Spinach Salad with a Red Onion Balsamic Dressing

Serves 4

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 small red onion or shallot, finely chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

90g fresh spinach or rocket

300g fresh strawberries, hulled and finely sliced

30g slivered almonds, toasted

15g parmesan, shaved in curls

1. In a small bowl add the balsamic vinegar, red onion/shallot, salt and pepper. Leave to stand for 10 minutes before adding the oil and whisking gently together. Leave to one side.

2. Place the slivered almonds into a large frying pan to toast. They brown really quickly so do not leave the pan. Use a spatula to move the almonds around the heat to help them bronze evenly. This will not take more than a couple of minutes.

3. In a large bowl add the spinach or rocket, strawberries, slivered almonds and parmesan shavings. To make the curls I use a regular vegetable peeler. Then add the dressing and gently toss so that the dressing is evenly distributed.

Serve immediately.

If you are preparing ahead of time do not add the dressing until your guests have arrived. The dressing can easily be made in advance.

Saffron and Cinnamon Honey Served TWO ways – sweet and savoury

5 Comments June 30, 2013 chilliandmint

Sometimes the simplest dishes are the best. A plate of freshly steamed samphire with a knob of butter, a moule mariniere with crusty bread to mop up the sauce, a mature chunk of cheddar with a crisp apple, a boiled egg dipped into cumin powder, fresh tomatoes with fresh basil and buffalo mozzarella drizzled in the finest extra-virgin olive oil, fresh asparagus dipped in butter (have you noticed there’s a butter theme going on here!). I could go on but in this day and age when many chef’s are pushing boundaries and creating new flavour sensations and wowing us with their scientific approach to the culinary arts it sometimes comes as a welcome relief to sit down and eat a meal that is not complicated and flash but is simple and truly delicious.

For those who have been following my blog for a while will know, I don’t really have a sweet tooth, well certainly not the kind to have dark chocolate cake/torte/mousse at the end of the meal. Growing up my favourite puddings were rhubarb crumble, pavlova, custard tart and anything with nuts in. Mr B on the other hand loves all the old English puds and often puts a request into my mother at around Christmas time to prepare one or two – things like jam roly poly, spotted dick, treacle pudding, tiramisu – she’s good at making all these, so I let her run with it.

Generally speaking we tend to just pick on fresh fruit at the end of the meal, which is not only delicious but also satisfying and involves no effort or preparation.

I recently came across a pudding however that immediately catapulted itself into the top league of puddings after the first mouthful. It involves 7 ingredients and can be whipped together very quickly.

Saffron and Cinnamon Honey with Figs and Greek Yoghurt

adapted from Greek.food.com

5 figs, halved

2 large tbsp thick Greek Yoghurt per serving

2 tbsp honey

1 large pinch of saffron

1 large stick of cinnamon

40 g white sugar

300ml cold water

1. In a saucepan place the cold water, sugar, honey, cinnamon stick and saffron and stir thoroughly until the sugar has completely dissolved. Simmer gently for around 15-20 minutes. Do not over cook as the liquid will turn into a thick toffee substance, which you do not want to happen.

2. On a serving plate/bowl add a generous dollop of Greek yoghurt and place three fig halves on top of each mound of yoghurt.

3. Finally gently spoon the scented honey over the figs and yoghurt having removed the cinnamon stick first and serve.

Note: You can also gently heat the figs in the honey for a minute on both sides, however I tend to prefer them fresh with the honey drizzled on top. Try both and see which you prefer.

As you are likely to have some sweet scented honey left over the following Scandinavian influenced open sandwich works a treat with the sweetness of the honey and the saltiness of the cheese and prosciutto/parma ham.

Open Sourdough Sandwich with Prosciutto, Cheese, Rocket, Peach and Scented Honey

Per Serving you will need:

1 slice of sour dough bread

1 slice of prosciutto

2 slices of cheese – I used Italian Taleggio La Baita above, but crumbled soft goat cheese also works really well

small handful or rocket/arugula

1/2 (half) peach

drizzle of scented honey (re above recipe)

pinch of coarse black pepper

Serve

I tend to make this open sandwich in the following order: bread, prosciutto, cheese, rocket, peach (or can be before rocket), honey and black pepper.

It makes a very satisfying lunch as the flavours compliment each other so well. For this photo shoot above I used white flat peaches but I think the sweet yellow flesh peaches would probably look more attractive on an open sandwich.

We are off to the island of the gods

Leave a comment August 19, 2011 chilliandmint

Our family summer holiday beckons. We are heading to the island of the gods – or as it is more recognisably known, Bali. Its been over a decade since Mr B and I have visited this wonderful island and we felt it was time to return, this time with big A and little Z in tow. Its a long way from London town, but we feel that the marathon journey is worth it when we get to this lush green island. We are heading for the jungle first for a week where we hope to be woken by the morning calls of unfamilar wild life. There will be lots to explore and the rhythm of daily life will change considerably. It will do all of us the world of good – well that’s the plan anyway.

I am not so sure how easy it will be for me to blog, so apologies in advance if it is not as frequent as you are use to. I am hoping to adopt some new recipes on my travels and any that make the grade I will certainly share with you.

When going on a journey it is comforting to have a few home comforts or in my case, home made morsels, to nibble on during the flight/drive/sail (delete as appropriate!). These parmigiano reggiano caraway (thats quite a mouthful!) biscuits should go down a treat with the girls and Mr B in moments of hunger on the flight. You can make the same biscuits with cheddar cheese as well, just use whatever variety of hard cheese needs eating in your fridge, and in my case its parmigiano reggiano. There are a number of potential ‘extras’ you can add to the biscuits, such as caraway, sesame or poppy seeds or chilli flakes on the outer rim so experiment and see which you like the best. Within the biscuits themselves I would also add a pinch or two of cayenne pepper, but since the girls will be eating them, and we are going on a journey, I will keep them as plain and simple as possible whilst retaining their moreish quality.

They are great to freeze – pre cooking – so make a large amount and bring out the rolls as and when you need them. I also find they are great as a little canape when hosting dinners.

Parmigiano-Reggiano Caraway Biscuits

Makes between 50-60 small round biscuits

125g parmigiano reggiano (or any hard cheese – cheddar works equally well), grated

125g cold butter

200g plain flour

1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper, optional

1 egg

pinch of salt

2 tbsp of caraway seeds

1. For speed and ease I tend to use my blender and I literally put all the ingredients in together and whizz for around 30 seconds and by this time all the ingredients have come together to create a dough like ball. If you are doing it all by hand then sift the flour and then mix in the butter, cayenne pepper and salt with your finger tips to create a bread crumb consistency. Then add the grated cheese and the egg, which should then help to bind the ingredients together. If it is too dry then add a tsp of water or if it is too wet then add a little more flour to bind it all together to create a ball.

2. Place on a floured surface and knead so that the ingredients are well bound together.

3. Roll out your dough into a long sausage shape and cut in two if necessary. Then using either greaseproof paper or cling film place the rolled dough in the centre and spread the caraway seeds over the dough. It is best to gently roll then over the seeds so that they are spread as evenly as possible.

4. Wrap the dough in the greaseproof paper or cling film and either put straight into the freezer to use at a later date or place in the fridge for few hours. You will find that it holds together and is better to cut once it has had some time to rest in the fridge.

5. After some time in the fridge, unwrap the dough and slice it evenly into small biscuits using a sharp knife.

6. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and while it is heating up grease a baking tray and evenly spread out the biscuits.

7. Place in the oven between 8-10 minutes. They are ready just as they are beginning to bronze. Be careful not to overcook, so do check regularly. They are delicious warm or will store for a few days in an airtight container.

I couldn’t resist this last shot when little Z’s hand crept into the photo frame eager to try one of the biscuits.