Displaying items by tag: cheese

Today for Zero Waste Week I used up all the leftover pieces of cheese in my fridge.  I made Potted Cheese. It's the perfect recipe to use any type of stale cheese and is delicious on toast or with baked potatoes.  It keeps for a week in the fridge. And don't throw away the milk can, wash it out and keep it to bake a mini fruit cake at Christmas.

• empty tin
•  

• Leftover cheese
• Soften onion and add evaporated milk
• Grated cheese
• Mix well
•  

A perfect way to use up all those leftover pieces of cheese in your fridge. All types of cheese can be used. It will keep for a week in the fridge and is a good vegetarian recipe.

Ingredients

225g grated cheese ( chop up cheeses that are hard to grate i.e Brie/Camembert

170g (small tin) evaporated milk

1 very small onion or 3 spring onions finely diced

1 tsp chopped chives

pinch of mustard powder

pepper

a little oil or butter for fying the onion

Method

Heat a small knob of butter or splash of oil in a saucepan and soften the chopped onion

Pour in the evaporated milk

Add the grated cheese, mustard powder and a little ground pepper

Stir well until the cheese has melted

Stir in the chopped chives

Pour into ramekins and leave to set in the fridge

Eat spread on toast or with a baked potato

Last night this was just one of the highlights of a delicious supper enjoyed with our foodie friends Justin and Jurga from Pea Porridge Restaurant. Mont d'Or AOC is a cheese from the Franche-Comté region made from cows milk produced from 15th August to 31st March. There are strict rules for the production of this AOC cheese. The raw milk can only be from the cows of the Montbéliard and Simmentaler breeds. To shape the Vacherin, it is rounded using a ring of Spruce bark. It is ripened on a Spruce wood board, taking at least three weeks, and is rotated several times before it is placed in its characteristic wooden box. We ate it directly from the box with a spoon. It is also delicious melted in the box in the oven.  Get some now for your Christmas cheeseboard.

The new Head Chef at the White Lion, Jason Shaw has dedicated himself to creating a dynamic menu, offering everything from tapas to a hearty dinner. The restaurant and the menu reflect the Suffolk coast with the freshest fish caught on the White Lion’s doorstep. Here Jason gives his recipe for a delicious starter or supper dish, or you could make them a little bit smaller for a canapé at a party.

Camembert and wild garlic beignets – makes 24

450g of strong flour

8 whole eggs

226g butter

1pt water

150gm camembert cheese peeled and roughly chopped

50gm wild garlic blanched and finely chopped

salt and pepper

Method

Bring the water to the boil and add butter. Add flour and mix well. Cook out for 1-2 mins on the heat.

Cool the mixture and then add the eggs gradually, beating all the time until the mix is glossy.

Fold in the Camembert and wild garlic and season to taste. Leave mix to rest for one hour.

Using 2 dessert spoons shape the beignets into Quenelle’s. Heat the vegetable oil and deep fry until golden brown for roughly 4-5 minutes. Drain and serve. At the White Lion Jason serves his with Balsamic caramelised onions, Thorpeness leaves and fresh pomegranate with fresh pomegranate syrup.

Suffolk Shipcord Cheese Custard - served with soda bread. Serves 4.

The Savoury Custard

Boil the cream and let it cool down to room temperature.  Whisk the eggs, then mix with the rest of ingredients.  Pour into a buttered oven proof dish at least 2 inches deep. Place in a pre-heated oven at 150°C for 20 to 30 mins. When cooked it should feel slightly firm to the touch. Serve with warm oatmeal soda bread and a mixed green salad.

Soda Bread

150g wholemeal flour, plus extra for dusting

150g plain flour

25g porridge oats

2tsp soft brown sugar

284ml carton buttermilk

1 tsp salt

Sift flour, salt, and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.  Add sugar and oats, then stir in the buttermilk using a wooden spoon.  Bring together the dough with your hands into a round and place on a baking sheet dusted with flour.  Cut a cross on top then bake for 30 mins at 200°C. Cool on a wire rack then slice and serve with butter.

It looked empty from the car park although we had a nice apple tasting from Mr Greenwoods (Norfolk, but we like Norfolk too) on the way in. Inside it was busy, we bought honey, coffee, black pudding, cheese and a lot of curry!

      ..            .   

Crespolini

(Italian Spinach and Ricotta stuffed, vegetarian pancakes)

Make up a batch of pancakes, either plain or Buckwheat, using the pancake batter recipe

For the filling:

• 500g/1lb ( raw weight) of spinach leaves
• 500g/ 1lb Ricotta cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

Steam the spinach until tender (microwaving in a cling filmed container works very well for spinach, don’t add water)

Drain any excess liquid from the spinach and add the Ricotta cheese, salt and pepper to taste, mix well.

Divide the mixture between the cooked pancakes and roll up. Place the pancakes in a single layer in an ovenproof dish.

For the Béchamel sauce

• 600ml/1.5 pints milk
• 1 onion
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cloves
• 6 black peppercorns
• 50g/2oz butter
• 50g/2oz plain flour
• Pinch grated nutmeg (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 100g/4oz Parmesan Cheese

(for those of you in a real hurry, forget the onion, cloves, bay leaf and peppercorns and just go ahead making the sauce with the butter, flour and milk)

Impale the onion with the cloves and place in a saucepan with the bay leaves, peppercorns and milk.

Bring to a simmer and then leave to stand

Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the flour, cook over a low heat for a couple of minutes

Strain the milk into the flour and butter and stir well (a whisk is best to avoid lumps)

Cook for a few minutes and add the grated nutmeg if using.

Pour the sauce over the pancakes and sprinkle over the Parmesan cheese.

Bake in a preheated oven 190C/380C Gas 4 for 30 – 40 minutes, or microwave, and grill the top.

...made by some young suffolkfoodies - thanks for the picture Arianne and Dominique - I'm coming to your house for tea!

A delicious cream cheese dessert to serve with fruit, particularly summer berries. Named after the heart shaped moulds they are traditionally set in, although we had to order ours online and they didn't arrive until after we had made them in the biscuit moulds pictured above. You will need a piece of muslin to line the moulds, although if you don't want to turn the creams out, don't worry.

Ingredients

• 350 g cream cheese ( unsalted or sieved cottage cheese)
• 155g of icing sugar
• 600ml double cream
• 2tsps vanilla essence
• a little grated lemon rind ( half a teaspoon)
• vanilla seeds scraped from the pod
• Method
• Beat the cream cheese and icing sugar together until smooth. Whisk in the double cream, vanilla essence, lemon rind and vanilla seeds. The mixture should be of a thickish consistency which will need to be spooned into the moulds. If it is pourable it is still too runny, so whip for a little longer.

If you are lucky enough to have some proper moulds ( the ones with the draining holes in the bottom) then line them with damp muslin. If not use ramekins lined with muslin. Fill each mould and leave in the fridge, preferable overnight to allow any liquid to drain through the holes.

Turn out and serve with fresh fruit. Strawberries are traditionally served.

One of my favourite veggie pies uses cabbage. New seasons Sweetheart cabbage is best but white or Savoy will both work well. Use shortcrust pastry or buy ready rolled puff pastry. Sometimes I make pasties instead of a family size pie.