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.

How far should you let a Brie go?

Here is a picture of a practically perfect Brie. IMHO although some people might argue it had been allowed to mature too far.

It was served as part of a food and wine tasting I conducted at the cookery school Leiths the other day.

True, it made it trickier to find a wine match. The Chilean pinot noir I'd picked to go with it seemed a bit lightweight, it was so decadently creamy. On the other hand it hadn't got that sort of ammoniac character that Brie can acquire as it ages which can give it an unpleasantly bitter edge.

All you need is a hunk of crisp, freshly baked baguette to slather it on. And maybe a few grapes. The perfect lunch . . .

Beats the sort of underripe Bries you find on the supermarket chill counter hands down. You should never serve Brie straight from the fridge either.

But should you let it go this far if you value the wine you're drinking with it? What do you reckon?

Croatian cheese

One of the pleasures of travelling is checking out another country's cheese scene so I was looking forward to finding out what Istria in northern Croatia had to offer when I visited it last week.

The answer was not a great deal of distinction, just a lot of simply made fresh cheeses and a few aged, Pecorino-style ones. Cheese seems to be served almost as a condiment, accompanying vegetable dishes like asparagus or cold meats such as Istrian ham.

It's much more likely to be used at the beginning of a meal or as an accompaniment to a wine-tasting

Or as a selection of canapés at a buffet as with this hotel brunch (top and below).

Or it may be roughly grated, Pecorino-style, over a plate of pasta (in this case pasta with wild asparagus).

So there don't appear to be many strong cheeses but maybe that's deliberate so it can act as a foil for Croatia's gorgeous, grassy olive oil.

Two 'drunken' cheeses

By chance I've come across two cheeses lately that are both matured with the by-products of red wine. The first, last week, was at Al Pompiere in Verona where I tried a Monte Veronese Ubriaco (above, front) a local hard cows' milk cheese that had been soaked in grape must, and which was served with a sweet red onion marmalade.

Then back home I came across a fantastic cheese called Testun (pronounced tess-toon) at Zucca in Bermondsey Street - a smooth, tangy cheese which is apparently wrapped in nebbiolo vine leaves. I think it must be similar to the Testun al Barolo which is described here on the US cheese retailer Artisanal although the rind didn't have the same craggy appearance.

What this type of ageing process seems to result in is a more pliable consistency and a deeper more savoury flavour than you would find in a conventionally matured cheese and one that gives it a greater compatibility with red wine (although this article by the San Francisco Chronicle's cheese writer Janet Fletcher, suggests the contrary).

Both come into the category of ubriaco or 'drunken' cheeses, a description I must say I rather like.

Two simple, stunning ways to serve mozzarella

Most people I would guess use mozzarella one of two ways - in the classic insalata tricolore with tomatoes and avocado or to top a pizza. But I came across two brilliant new ways of serving it this week which I thought I'd share.

One was at our local wine bar and restaurant Flinty Red where the chef Matthew Williamson had topped it with a sharp little salad of shredded cabbage, capers, lemon and fried roughly torn bread.

The other was at the legendary River Cafe in London where it came with smashed chickpeas, roast artichokes and Italian erbette (lightly cooked greens)


Both looked beautiful, I think you'll agree and in each case made a lovely fresh-tasting, easy to assemble starter. Both relied on top class ingredients including great olive oil and super-fresh bufala mozzarella.

You might think that would be hard to get hold of if you don't have a good cheese shop nearby but you can buy it direct from Italy online from sites such as nifeislife.com

Whisky and Cheese pairing

I've just posted a piece on my food and wine matching site on a whisky and cheese tasting I tried out at The Capital bar this week. Click here for more.

La Tur - a gorgeous Italian cheese

We went out for dinner to friends last night and they served just one cheese - a gorgeous triple cream cheese called La Tur. It sounds French but in fact comes from the Langhe region of Piedmont - maybe why it went so well with the Dolcetto we were drinking.

According to this site belonging to Clarks Speciality Foods it's a mixture of pasteurized cows, sheep and goats milk and has a delicate, slightly lactic earthy flavour and the most wonderful creamy silky consistency as if it's about to melt. My friend actually bought it at Waitrose where it seems to be stocked in larger branches. A real find and at £4.95 - enough for six - quite a bargain.

Incidentally I like the sound of the Clarks Italian cheese selection which includes La Tur, a cave aged Tallegio, Gorgonzola Dulce, Ubriaco which is rubbed with red wine must and Basajo, a blue cheese that's soaked in sweet wine