Another clever cheese plate

A couple of nights ago I was at a dinner to celebrate 36 years of one of Bristol's best local restaurants Bell's Diner. The current chef Chris Wicks has only been at the stoves there for 12 years or so but put his personal spin on some of his predecessor's creations including - believe it or not - Tartex paté en croute. (Tartex was a 1970s paté substitute for veggies of which there have always been plenty in Bristol.)

But is was the cheese course I wanted to write about here: two goats' cheeses - Tymsboro and Sleightlett - from Chris's favourite cheesemaker, Mary Holbrook (below), about whom I've already written on this blog.

The cheeses were served on slates with a shard of lightly spiced flatbread and - the crowning touch - a small glass of goats' milk as if to pay tribute to the quality of the raw material. (It was also served with a glass of 2010 Domaine Tellier Menetou Salon which was the perfect match. From another long-term supplier Yapp Brothers.

Mary and her cheesemaker were there to talk about the cheeses, a really nice way of paying tribute to someone who'd been associated with the restaurant for many years.

Capra Nouveau

I've got a bit behindhand with my cheese posts - this was one I tasted about a month ago at my local deli, Chandos.

It's a washed rind goats cheese from a Shropshire producer called Brock Hall Farm. The surface looks almost as if it has been knitted and the interior is seductively yielding - a bit like a Vacherin.

It's quite assertive and fruity in flavour, but not strong and not at all 'goaty'. If I hadn't been told I'd have said it was a cows' cheese.

It's also very moreish. I bought a relatively small amount as I like to buy my cheese little and often and we wolfed our way through it in no time.

You can find other stockists on the Brock Hall Farm website.

Why plastic doesn't do cheese any favours

One of the things that most saddens me about cheese shops is seeing a counter full of cheese wrapped in cling-film. It may be wonderfully hygienic but it does nothing for the texture and consistency of the cheese. You can see soft cheeses like Brie bulging out of their packaging, struggling to breathe, emerging sweaty and oily - how did such a practice become standard?

I don't think vac-packing cheese does them much good either. I recently received a selection from the Northumberland producer Doddington (above, for which many thanks) which didn't taste a fraction as good as the version I tried in Neal's Yard* (below). A real shame as it's a lovely, lovely cheese with a rich deep taste and a crumbly, almost Parmesan-like texture.


In the new Hawksmoor at Home cookery book with which I've been involved they add it to mashed swede which is totally delicious.

Doddington also makes a range of other cheeses including one washed with Newcastle Brown. I suspect your best best would be to buy them somewhere local to the dairy.

* where, incidentally you'll see they don't totally cover the cheese just the paste (interior) which allows the cheese to breathe.

St James washed rind sheeps' cheese

I passed Neal's Yard Dairy in Borough Market last week which has found a fiendish new way to lure you into the shop (not that I need a great deal of encouragement): a table outside with cheeses to try.

The one that appealed to me most was St James, an unpasteurised, brine-washed sheeps' cheese that's made by Holker Farm Dairy in Cumbria. It's not new - it won the James Aldridge Award for 'Best Unpasteurised Cheese of the Year' back in 2005 but it hadn't entered my radar.

I'm not even sure I've had a washed rind sheeps' cheese before but like most sheeps cheeses it wasn't quite as rich as cows' cheeses - a benefit when you have the unctuous texture of a washed rind cheese to contend with. As you can see it was in perfect condition - wonderfully rich and savoury, but not over the top flavour-wise. So not particularly 'stinky'.

Further proof, if proof were needed, that British cheeses are up there with the best in the world. You can read more about it here.

Are you scared to try new cheeses?

According to a survey by the British Cheese Board released today one in 10 of us is scared of trying a new cheese.

I suppose one should be heartened that 9 in 10 of us aren't but I always find it surprising that anyone is scared of food. I only have to find out about a new cheese - or new anything - and I want to try it and I guess that applies to many of my regular readers too.

But suppose you do feel like that? How do you move out of your cheddar (and, I suspect, brie) comfort zone?

A lot of it I suspect has to do with intensity of flavours. I know many people - my husband is one - who don't like strong blues like Roquefort or stinky cheeses like Epoisses. But the answer is not to avoid that style of cheese completely but find a milder example of it.

If you find Stilton too strong for instance try a milder, mellower Barkham Blue or Gorgonzola Dolce.

If you run a mile from pongy cheeses try something like a Tallegio which has that gorgeously gooey interior of a washed rind cheese without its pungent smell.

You could also think of trying a sheeps' cheese like Manchego or Berkswell which doesn't tend to be too strong or a mature Gouda or Mimolette which has a nicely rounded nutty flavour. (Waitrose does unscary examples of all these.)

And what about the many other English regional cheeses, many of them mild and mellow - Caerphilly, Wensleydale and Red Leicester to name but three?

Of course the best way to extend your knowledge of cheese is to go to a cheese shop or deli that will let you have a taste - or, if you're in the vicinity, head for the British Cheese Festival in Cardiff this weekend. Or come to our Cheese School on October 30th, says she, ruthlessly grasping the opportunity for a quick plug!

You can also identify the British cheeses you might like on the British Cheese Board's new flavour map. Click on the pins near the centre for milder cheeses.

Try one new cheese a month and you'll soon be an expert.

Do you stick to the same few cheeses? If you tell me what they are I'll suggest a new cheese for you to try!

A simple sheep and goats' cheese board

Cheeseboards, as I've said, before don't have to be massive affairs featuring six or seven different cheeses. In fact it's far less wasteful if they're not.

Here's a simple one based on sheep and goats' cheeses from one of our two good local cheese shops Chandos Deli in Bristol. Top left a fresh young pecorino, at the bottom a silky-textured Montenebro goats' cheese and top right (and below) a slightly Roquefort-ish Beenleigh Blue ewes cheese from Robin Congdon of Ticklemore Cheese in south Devon. All have character but none are too strong which makes them a good selection for a red wine such as rioja. And equally good for someone who's intolerant to cows' milk.

And I like their paleness against the dark grey slate.

Sarsden sheeps cheese

It's a great sign of the health of artisan cheesemaking in Britain that you keep coming across new - and really good - cheeses. This was one I tried at the Stroud Farmers' market on Saturday made by Karen and Roger Crudge who make cheese with milk from Wayfield Farm near Stratford upon Avon.

They say it's a gruyère type cheese but I don't really get that. It's not as smooth though it does have a real depth of flavour and a fuller, creamier consistency than, say, Berkswell. They recommend it with fig and ouzo jam!

They apparently sell at Stroud on the 2nd and 5th Saturdays (when there is a 5th Saturday) and Woodstock, Chipping Norton, Deddington, Hebington (Oxford) and Wolvercote (Oxford) Farmers Markets. There's a nice piece about them by local foodwriter Matthew Fort here.


Not quite in the same league but I also enjoyed a Boursin-style pepper cheese (above) from Brinkworth Dairy and a convincing organic Cotswold Mozzarella from Simon Weaver in Upper Slaughter.

My Ogleshield obsession

I've been tasting a fair few cheese burgers lately but none seems to hit the spot quite as nicely as the one they do the cult London steakhouse Hawksmoor. (Quick declaration of interest here - it also happens to be my son Will's restaurant so I'm hardly unbiased!)

Part of the reason is that it's topped with Ogleshield, an unpasteurised brine-washed, Jersey milk cows' cheese. It was originally created by visiting cheesemakers at top cheddar producer Jamie Montgomery and refined by a Neal's Yard affineur, Bill Oglethorpe, hence the name.

The great thing about it - apart from the rich, mellow taste - is that it melts brilliantly, much like raclette. Hawksmoor also uses it for their wackily named Egg HkMuffin - an artisanal riff on the McDonald's breakfast special with a homemade sausage patty (right).

There's a lovely recipe from Rose Prince for some Ogleshield pastries on the Telegraph website and I have a feeling it would make an amazing tartiflette. We're featuring it at Cheese School this weekend so I'll bring some home if there's any left over and give it a whirl.

You can read more about it on the Neal's Yard Dairy site here

Making cheese with cardoons

One of the most fascinating things i discovered at last weekend’s Cheese Fair was what cardoons look like - or at least what they look like in the form in which cheesemakers get to handle them. They’re widely used in Spain and Portugal and Mary Holbrook, who I referred to in the last post, uses them to make Cardo and Tilleys, which I’ve mentioned before on this blog (though managed to misspell).


Cardoons are a thistle-like plant which grow up to about 7 foot high. The stamens are picked and dried - a bit like saffron stamens. "You want cardoon with as much purple in it as you can get" said Mary. It’s traditionally used to make sheeps’ cheeses but she uses it with goats milk when she has a plentiful supply in the summer and believes it gives her cheeses a special flavour and texture. “It’s the cardoons, not my cheesemaking which give character to the cheese” she said modestly.

“We have to grind the stamens to break them then add warm water and infuse them for 20 minutes then filter it and stir it into the milk. You have to do this extremely thoroughly otherwise you can get parts of the milk coagulating and others staying liquid. The process is quite quick - it takes about the same time as making normal soft or hard cheese.”

Despite the trickiness of the process and the difficulty of getting hold of the stamens Mary thinks there’s no substitute for the raw ingredient. “I’m not looking forward to the day when they have liquid cardoon rennet” she said firmly.

Meeting some of Britain's best cheesemakers

Yesterday I went to Bath to check out the Fine Cheese Co’s Cheese Festival in Milsom Place, an opportunity to meet and buy cheeses from 14 of the best artisanal cheesemakers in the country. The Fine Cheese Co, which is run by Anne-Marie Dyas, is always a step ahead of the game: it was one of the first to sell cheese online, and to come up with matching biscuits and condiments for cheese which are still hard to beat for quality.



There were quite a few cheesemakers whose cheeses I was already familiar with such as Keen’s Cheddar, Bath Soft Cheese, White Lake, Sharpham, Ticklemore and Charlie Westhead of Neal’s Yard Creamery (above) but it was good to meet one of my heroes, Mary Holbrook of Sleight Farm, in person (top of the page) and taste right through her range.



I also got to meet Suzanne Stirke of Fortmayne Dairy in North Yorkshire (above) who makes Richard III, a fine traditional style of Wensleydale (and hope I've managed to persuade her to go on Twitter!).



And I discovered a lovely unpasteurised Red Leicester from David and Jo Clarke of the Leicestershire Handmade Cheese Co. The cheese hasn’t been made in the county for 20 years and not on a farm in the county for over half a century.

The event really underlined what magnificent cheeses we have in this country. I hope it's something the Fine Cheese Co. will sponsor every year.

Six Devon cheeses

I did a couple of cheese and wine matching classes at the Dartmouth Food Festival this weekend with local winemerchant Liam Steevenson of Red & White in Kingsbridge.

Fittingly we used six Devon cheeses. Two were familiar to me - Quicke's Traditional Mature Cheddar which we paired with Chateau Lezongars Premières Côtes de Bordeaux and Beenleigh Blue, a Roquefort-like ewes' cheese from Ticklemore Cheese in Totnes which we matched with a sweet Bordeaux, Domaine de Noble Loupiac. (I'm not sure about the vintages which weren't on the tasting sheet - sorry!)

There were two from Sharpham Dairy, also in Totnes - a very attractive creamy Brie which paired beautifully with a fresh-tasting Beaujolais: Fleurie 'La Madone', La Reine de L'Arenite and a new cheese called Sharpham Savour, a tangy mixture of cows' and goats' milk that was apparently created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of South Devon being designated an area of outstanding natural beauty. We matched that with an Urbino Rioja Crianza - the most successful of the reds for me.

The other two cheeses were Norsworthy, a hard goats' cheese which we partnered with a Domaine Jean-Claude Chatelain Sancerre and Curworthy, a mellow Cheddarish cheese which was paired with La Secreto Carmenère, a lush fruity red from Chile that I thought slightly overwhelmed it.

Although the people who came clearly felt most comfortable about red wine with cheese most were converted by the the goats cheese and Sauvignon Blanc and sweet wine and blue combinations. And I must say I was impressed by the cheeses. A tasting based on six from one county isn't bad.

Tilly: a rare British goats' cheese

The great thing about genuinely artisanal cheese - like 'natural' wine - is that it's finite. It may be a small experimental batch or only made at a particular time of year. When it's gone it's gone. So it was good to try this rare cheese from Mary Holbrook at the Bristol Food & Wine Fair from my friends at Trethowan's Dairy.

It's called Tilly after a field on her Somerset Farm and is an unwashed version of the unpasteurised goats cheese Cardo I was raving about last summer which is set using an extract of cardoon thistle rather than rennet.

I can't say I like it quite as much. Cardo has a particularly sumptuous silky texture but it's a delicious cheese by any standard - delicate yet intensely flavoured and not obviously 'goaty' at all.

Jess of Trethowan's Dairy says they simply can't get enough of it. "When we have a big do we have to save up our quota".

So we nibbled it extra slowly (with some dry Montlouis) and look forward - hopefully - to tasting it again next year.

On Sunday I'm off to Washington State and Oregon for 10 days so am hoping for a taste of the famous Rogue River Blue! It might be a couple of weeks till the next post though . . .

Tymsboro: a love affair re-kindled

What I love about artisan cheese is that it always tastes different. Sometimes so different that you feel as if you're tasting it for the first time again.

So it was yesterday with Tymsboro', an ash-coated unpasteurised goats' cheese I've been buying on and off over the years. It's made by Mary Holbrook of Sleight's Farm in Somerset and is a modern British classic

I hovered over it as it looked more mature than usual and my husband doesn't like very strong 'goaty' cheeses. But it was absolutely spectacular - with a fresh citrussy tang, yet palate-caressingly creamy in texture. I can't remember ever tasting a better one.

I bought it from the Trethowan's Dairy shop in St Nicholas Market in Bristol where the cheese is always in tip-top condition because they don't ever carry too many and pick it up themselves direct from the farm*.

At £7.50 it's not cheap but a whole one will easily serve four and you don't need to serve any others. And that's not a lot to pay for perfection.

* I would say nice things about Trethowan's Dairy because they're my partners in Cheese School but on the other hand I wouldn't have gone into partnership with them if they weren't so great!

Mac’n’cheese challenge: best use of artisanal cheese

While it’s always fun to invent a new recipe I thought it would be good to have a category which encouraged you all to use British artisanal cheeses. There was of course some overlap - some of you mentioned specific cheeses in your entries for best original recipe - and some made good use of cheeses outside the UK but you have to draw the line somewhere.

Interestingly Neal’s Yard proved to be the favourite place to source your cheeses and Montgomery's Cheddar the most frequently featured cheese:


Donna D combined it with Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire in her blog My Fitness Year. (Not that mac'n'cheese immediately strikes you as part of a healthy eating regime but as Donna says, moderation in all things!)

Ms MarmiteLover offers the alternative of Green's of Glastonbury cheddar or Montgomery for her classic version which she says is "perfect for sitting in front of the telly watching something a bit crap like 'I'm a celebrity' or 'Big Brother'. It's great duvet food."


Sig of Scandilicious combined Montgomery with Wensleydale, Gorwydd Caerphilly and Stichelton in her ingenious version (above) which employed crème fraîche rather than having to make a cheese sauce. (Nice pix of the individual cheeses too.)


Sharmila of Sharmila on Food opted for Montgomery’s Cheddar, Ogleshield and Isle of Mull Cheddar for what she said "resulted in the most wondrous cheese sauce", capped by a few drops of white truffle oil.


And Scott of Scott Can Cook seems to have single-handedly kept Neal's Yard in business with his researches into different cheeses - again ending up with a Mac and Montgomery cheddar version.


In fact James of The Cotswold Food Year was the only one not to use Montgomery coming up instead with his wickedly indulgent Truffled Macaroni Bries. (Before you oject, as I did, he points out that he did in fact use St. Eadburgh, a Camembert-style cheese from Gorsehill Abbey Farm. He just liked the play on words of Macaroni Bries ;-)

This category will be judged by Jess Trethowan of Trethowans Dairy who are donating a gift box of artisanal cheeses to the winner.

Ribblesdale goat

Before I get submerged in a week's macaroni cheese mania (the final deadline is tonight if you're thinking of submitting an entry) I just wanted to report on the cheese I've been eating this weekend: Ribblesdale goat which my daughter brought down from York for me.

As you can see from the picture it's not much to look at, even when the clingfilm is removed. It's one of those cheeses which is coated in wax which I imagine is what gives it its semi-soft, almost spreadable texture - almost like a posh Dairylea. The taste however is fantastic - rich, mellow (it lacks the acidity of most goats' cheeses) and moreish. It's absolutely impossible to stop nibbling it as I've found to my cost.

They don't appear to have a website of their own but according to one distributor Cheeses Direct it's vegetarian and, interestingly, can also be frozen. Not that it would last that long in this household.

What do you think about waxed cheeses? A good or not-so-good idea?

A white blue cheese

This cheese sounds like something out of Alice in Wonderland: a white blue. I found it in the Co-op under their slightly annoying 'truly irresistible' label which includes products that are perfectly OK but not that exceptional.

It comes from Butlers Cheese in Lancashire whose normal blue is the orange coloured Blacksticks Blue, a pleasant mellow cheese similar to a Shropshire Blue. The Blacksticks White is similarly buttery but has rather more bite. At £2.19 a 150g pack it's more expensive than basic supermarket Stilton and to be honest no better.

It would be good - and this is really damning it with faint praise - for cooking, say, a blue cheese sauce or dressing or in a salad or a quiche. In fact I might very well do that.

It is vegetarian though and - good for the Co-op - uses GM free rennet though I'm not sure how widespread the use of GM rennet is.

The rising stars of British cheese

Despite my strictures on the Great British Cheese Festival there was one stand-out event and that was organiser Juliet Harbutt’s talk and tasting on the ‘rising stars’ of British cheese. A number of them were ones I’d already discovered, some were new but as it's British Cheese Week I urge you all to track them down:

New Forest White
I wasn’t sure I liked this cheese - a soft goats’ cheese flavoured with honey - when I first tasted it. It grew on me but you’d have to treat it as a dessert cheese. I can imagine it being fabulous with figs and a sweet wine like Samos Muscat

Morangie Brie
My discovery of the day - an ultra-rich buttery Brie with more than a hint of mushrooms which picked up the award for Best Scottish Cheese. Made by the same cheesemaker who makes Strathdon Blue and Harbutt’s Blue Monday (below) - half a mile from the Glenmorangie distillery (hence the name)

Moonshine
An attractive Irish semi-soft Emmental-style cheese from Moon Shine Dairy Farm Co Galway that Harbutt described as tastiing of ‘fermented fruit’ (odd, but I know what she meant - it was a bit peary). Organic and biodynamic

Wyfe of Bath
Another semi soft cheese from Bath Soft Cheese, described by Harbutst as smellling like ‘cheese scones’ (an apt description) Pleasant but didn’t really do it for me.

Duddleswell
A sheeps cheese from Sussex High Weald Dairy. I'm a big fan of sheeps’ cheese so this really rocked my boat. Lovely mellow, gentle sweetness but tangy and characterful too.

Stoney Cross
A tomme-style cheese from Lyburn Farmhouse Cheesemakers in Hampshire. Rich and creamy but with a nice, balancing acidity.

Hafod
A new(ish) organic Welsh cheddar I’ve raved about on this blog before. Less complex (aka funky) than some of the best known artisanal cheddars such as Keens but more approachable. Lovely clean, crumbly texture - none of that ‘soapiness’ you get from block cheddars.

Blue Monday
Launched last year by Juliet and ex Blur guitarist Alex James this sexy-looking blue has the distinction of being sold in a square.More like a Gorgonzola than a Stilton in taste and texture - mellow and creamy.

Stichelton
This cheese, which is made by Joe Schneider on the Welbeck Estate, can’t be classified as Stilton because if’s unpasteurised but it’s Stilton in all but name. Already an oustanding British cheese, if not one of the best blues in the world.

Finn and Mushroom Melt

One of the problems about being a cheeselover is that cheese is not exactly slimming - or at least not in the quantities that I eat it - so I'm always on the lookout for ways to reduce the overall calorie load of any cheese-based meal. Leaving out or reducing the amount of bread, pasta or potatoes is one option. Skipping an accompanying glass of wine another.

At lunch today I fell upon a new way to do a melt. I fried up some sliced portabella mushrooms with a little garlic and parsley then added some sliced Finn, a gloriously rich triple cream-style unpasteurised cow's milk cheese made by Charlie Westhead of the Neal's Yard Creamery in Herefordshire*. It had been at room temperature for an hour so melted beautifully into the mushrooms. The meal was completed by a lightly dressed watercress salad and a small slice of potato bread and frankly was just as good as if I'd made the whole thing on toast (which would probably have gone soggy).

If you can't find Finn, which is available from Neal's Yard and new on-line retailer Pong (from whom I got it) you could use Brie.

Lovely Little Rydings

Since my husband is dairy intolerant - well, more specifically cows' milk-intolerant - I'm always on the lookout for interesting sheeps' cheeses, the type of milk he seems to tolerate best and this was a cheese I found at the Bristol Slow Food market last Sunday I've been meaning to share with you.

It was created by Mary Holbrook, one of the best cheesemakers in the south-west, but is now made by Wootton Organic Dairy in Somerset. It has a wonderful flavour: fresh-tasting, slightly sharp and citrussy with a light moussey texture that almost seems to melt in your mouth. Much lighter than Camembert which it otherwise resembles

Apparently it's just coming into season so do look out for it. You can buy it online from The Cheese Gig though the Slow Food market, which takes place on the first Sunday of the month, is of course cheaper (£5 a whole 200g cheese, compared to £6.99 though the latter is by no means unreasonable for a cheese of this quality)

When young like this I'd accompany it with cider though I'm sure it wouldn't pose any problems for a medium-bodied red wine like a Rioja.