How I learned to love brown cheese

It's been a standing joke for a while between me and my friend Norwegian-born author and blogger Signe Johansen of Scandilicious that I Don't Do Brown Cheese. She has constantly maintained it's delicious while I - on the strength of tasting it some 25 years ago - felt equally strongly that it was an abomination. Or I did until last Thursday when I finally got round to tasting the real thing - Ekte Geitost.

It comes in a drum and you slice off slices with a Scandi-style cheese slicer - either to top crispbread or to melt into a sauce as she did with the meatball gravy she served at her pop-up supper.

It taste not like soap, as I remembered, but more like salted caramel or the Mexican goats milk caramel, cajeta. In other words, delicious though I'm not sure I would go as far as to top it with lingonberry jam as Sig does, a peanut butter and jelly-ish combo that obviously appeals more to Norwegians than it does to me. There's a heart-tugging advertisement for it here on YouTube which somehow seems especially poignant after the tragic loss of all those young lives over the weekend.

Anyway I take back all the sneery things I've said about it over the years. To dismiss it out of hand is like saying that cheddar is rubbish on the basis of tasting Kraft cheese slices. Sure it's not hugely cheesy but then nor is mascarpone or even some of those triple cream cheeses. It's different. And it's good.

I'm going to buy some next time I'm in London (they sell it at the Scandinavian Kitchen in Great Titchfield Street) and experiment with it, starting with brown cheese and bacon baked potatoes which I reckon would be terrific made with sweet potatoes. You heard it here first . . .

Berkswell, tomato and bobby bean salad

Here's a great idea for a salad I came across the other day at a Restaurants in Residence event in Docklands which was hosted by the supper club Shacklewell Nights.

It was put together by Jonathan Woolway, who's a sous-chef at St John and bore its trademark stamp of simply cooked seasonal ingredients.

This how he prepared it. (I've left it as he wrote it as I think it reads admirably well.)

Large vine tomatoes halved and roasted long & slow (with xtra virgin, s&p, bay, thyme) till they start to yield on the sides.
Bobby beans are blanched and then refreshed to maintain bite and colour.
Pea shoots
Olive oil croutons
Sherry vinaigrette (1 part sherry vinegar, 3 parts olive oil)
Grated Berkswell [sheeps' cheese] tossed through the salad and shaved Berkswell on the top.

I had a go at it last night sans pea shoots which I couldn't find locally and it worked almost as well but would suggest a couple of tips:

* Make the croutons out of a light bread like ciabatta so they go crunchy without getting hard

* I don't think you need sherry vinegar necessarily. A good red wine vinegar would do, possibly with a few extra drops of balsamic.

* the Berkswell I used didn't quite add the piquancy I was looking for and tasted in the original. If you can't find a really nutty one, try an aged pecorino or even parmesan.

But a great salad - fresh and seasonal. Just lovely at this time of year.

You can see my write-up of the other dishes and wine pairings on my website matchingfoodandwine.com

Serra da Estrela - Portugal's Mont d'Or

I've been in Portugal for the last few days finding out about cork and spending a day in the Vinho Verde region. I remember from my last visit a few years ago that there are some amazing Portuguese cheeses but this time found only one - Serra da Estrela, which is named after the highest mountain range in Portugal.

It's a totally delicious semi-soft sheeps' cheese that's served with the top cut open so you can dunk your bread or toast in its gooey interior. The milk comes from Bordeleira sheep which feed on wild mountain plants and herbs. It's coagulated with cardoons rather than animal rennet which makes for the silky flowing texture - not unlike a Vacherin Mont d'Or.

It's actually quite mild and buttery so you could drink it with a mature red - which is what the Portuguese themselves would do but we enjoyed it with a 2007 Alvarinho from Quintas de Melgaço.

Do try it if you get the chance.

Two summery cheeses from Homewood

Today has been the best day of summer so far. Gorgeously sunny but not too hot - just the sort of day to go to Bristol's weekly farmers' market.

I haven't been for a while - I always seem to be up in London midweek - so it was good to see some old friends including the Angela's Kitchen and Homewood's Dairy stall which sells delicious cheeses, jams and jellies.


They had two today that I thought really suited the weather - a fresh, not over-salty feta-style cheese (above) which I think would be great with beets and broad beans and a 'pickled cheese' of unpasteurised ewes cheese in Somerset sunflower oil (top), a great storecupboard ingredient which lasts a couple of months. I doubt if I can wait that long though. I'll probably open at the weekend and have it with flatbread, slow roast tomatoes and olives though I've just spotted they have a recipe for a spinach and pickled ewes' cheese slice and also serve it with nasturtium flowers which sounds very pretty.

They're also selling some tasty pickled sheeps' cheese and spring onion tarts


Apparently they also do Bath Farmers' Market on a Saturday. You can also buy their cheeses from the Trethowans Dairy shop and from Abel & Cole.

Warm pasta salad with tomatoes, mint, lemon and ricotta salata

I've never used ricotta salata before but was urged to try it the other day by Patricia Michelson of La Fromagerie. Here's what it looks like from the outside . . .


And cut side upwards . . .


It's a salted type of ricotta that's hard enough to grate . . .


Patricia suggested using it to make a simple plate of pasta with fresh tomatoes which I expected to taste like a pasta dish but tasted more like a warm salad. Which is what I've called it. Lovely, light and summery for the warm weather I'm sure we're going to have sometime this summer. Aren't we (she asks hopefully?)

Serves 2

225g penne
400g ripe tomatoes, chopped small
4 tbsp olive oil
leaves from 2 sprigs of fresh mint, torn into small pieces
rind and juice of half a lemon
75g ricotta salata, coarsely grated
salt and pepper

Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add salt and cook the pasta for the time recommended on the pack. Chop the tomatoes small and mix with the olive oil and torn mint leaves. Strain the pasta reserving a couple of tablespoons of cooking water. Return to the pan and tip in the chopped tomatoes, lemon juice and rind and reserved pasta water. Season to taste with pepper and a little salt. Serve in warm bowls generously scattered with the grated ricotta salata.

I have a feeling some lightly cooked peas would be good with this too. You could also add a few snipped chives.

Munster and Gewurztraminer: a classic cheese and wine pairing

I’ve spent the last few days in Alsace and can’t remember when I found a region so dominated by a single cheese. Even the Jura has Morbier and Mont d’Or as well as the ubiquitous Comté.

It is, of course, Munster the washed rind cheese named (it’s thought) after the village of the same name though there are suggestions that it may have been a corruption of monastery as it was first made by monks.

It’s typically served locally (as above) with cumin seeds and a glass of gewurztaminer, Alsace’s exotically perfumed off-dry wine which complements it perfectly. (I prefer the drier styles with it to the off-dry and certainly the sweet (Vendange Tardive) versions.)

Interestingly I found the Munster generally served younger than I would have expected presumably because of its pungent smell. The one exception was at the Taverne Alsacienne at Ingersheim where they serve a younger and more artisanal version (right) together. Needless to say the latter was the one I liked best.

3 clever cheeseboards

It's good to see restaurants getting more adventurous about the way they serve cheese, forgoing the lumbering cheese trolley (a pet hate) for stylish plates or boards. Here are three I've come across recently.

First, an individual cheeseboard (above) at the London members club Blacks. I was deep in conversation so forgot to ask what they were but think I spot a Tallegio and some kind of alpine cheese. (Likely to be Italian anyway as the owners come from Italy).

Next a cheese board at Marcus Wareing's new restaurant The Gilbert Scott (below). I like the matching chutneys - fresh pear with the blue cheese, apple with the goats' cheese (unusual but good) and a really intriguing savoury orange conserve with what I think was a cheddar though could have been a Lincolnshire Poacher.


And finally a lovely cheese plate that was served at a natural wine dinner at the South London wine bar Artisan & Vine, again with an Italian cheese, Fiore Secano, British Barkham Blue, some tiny cubes of candied peel, a scattering of roasted nuts and a drizzle of ... not sure but it was delicious. If I find out I'll let you know. Oh and a piece of Sardinian flatbread.