A Christmas cheeseboard with no equal

Although Christmas is perhaps not synonymous with cheese for people, it’s always a feature of chez Clark, come the yuletide period. A household with a strong appreciation for cheese, we use Christmas as the perfect excuse to stock up and have a fromage-fest. Usually on Boxing day, it will be a feature along with cold meats and salad.

This year I’ve come across a couple of new cheeses including Bath Blue, which a pal got for me on a visit to the Great British Cheese Festival which have inspired me to try and create a board with a balance of cheeses and something new. So thought I’d do a spot of research and some ideas from fellow cheese appreciators on what makes a good board. A few of the comments were:

• “Variety – and unpasteurised cheeses ” – Chris
• “Something hard, something blue, something soft and a bit of goat” – James
• “Needs something creamy. Call me Scottish, but oatcakes are a must” - John
• “Something stinky!” – Carla
• “A good cheeseboard shouldn’t be pretty, just rustic” – Ellie (provider of said cheese)

Where to begin! I think there are a few key elements to a good cheeseboard, aside from the cheese itself:

• Accompaniments: jellies, chutneys, nuts, grapes, figs etc
• Biscuits and/or bread: different cheeses work better with different ones. I like soft cheeses on bread, hard cheeses on oat or wholemeal biscuits and blue cheeses on crunchy slim crackers
• Presentation: for cheese there are a few things to get right. Temperature is the most important thing because it affects the taste and spreadability. A nice wooden board is good aesthetically but to Ellie’s comment – it shouldn’t be too pretty!
• Booze: a good port and/or wine to go with is super important

By the way (if you think I’ve missed something from this I love to hear it).

Cheese-wise, I think I’m going to go with the following this year:

• Bath Blue
• Colston Basset Stilton
• Aged mature cheddar
• Cambazola
• Brie
• Goats cheese
• Something unpasturised if I can find it!

And in terms of accompaniments, it will be chilli jelly, spicy chutney, nuts and grapes. Booze-wise, it will be a fairly standard Taylor’s port. I’ll update this post with some pictures once I’ve done the board over Christmas

Food in season: June

So, what’s good in June? According to sources like Delia Onlineand BBC Food, its things like aubergines, broad beans, fresh fruit like strawberries and cherries. Also, peppers are in season, so hopefully that means the price in supermarkets is going to come down, I’ve noticed peppers costing around 60-70p each in Tesco, which seems much higher than normal…

So, what do do with them?

• Aubergines – do a mousaka – here’s one by Jamie Oliver or use them in a caponata like this, or this
  
• Broad beans – Delia has a nice-looking salad with pancetta and red wine vinegar but you could put them in and salad if they’re young enough, or just serve them alongside a hot meal
• Fresh fruit - fruit salad…okay fine. But when I start seeing fruit going for a song at street sellers and markets I think smoothies. You can make a really nice healthy smoothie with just some fruit, yoghurt and even add some juice to pad it out. A squeeze of lemon or lime always adds a good tang too.
• Bell peppers – bit of a staple across many diets I think; I put them in curries and salads alike, the seem to get everywhere! I’ve got a great little chicken and red pepper sauce recipe (can’t remember where I got it) which is also great, in fact I’ll post it separately

This seems to be the best month my herbs have had too, so I’ll also be looking to use as much oregano (dressing), chives (salads, tzatsiki), rosemary (lamb) and thyme (chicken pies)! Hmm. There’s a blog posting there about using herbs methinks…

Making Vegetables More Interesting

I often overlook the vegetable side of a meal because I only focus on the meat or main part of the meal – it’s something I’m trying to improve on. Recently it occurred that although I’m getting a reasonable amount of veg, sticking a few spuds and some broccoli to go with dinner can get a bit banal, so when I saw Sophie Grigson’s Vegetables, I thought it would be a good chance to get some new ideas.

So far it’s been great trying some new things – I’d really recommend Grigson’s book. It book has recipe ideas listed by vegetable, so if you’re trying to eat in-season then its really helpful. Or, if you’ve never liked or tried a certain vegetable and want to try it out a different way, you can experiment.

I’ve tried a Caponata (like this) and a Pepperonata (which is a sauce made with bell peppers) which you can have as anti-pasti. As broad beans are coming into season I think I’m going to experiment a little with those.

Food in season: May

The Times Calendar Cookbook (1977 edition) tells me that May is the month for the first young Summer veggies. English garden veg like broad beans, beetroot, bunched carrots, French beans and sugar peas will abound, along with watercress and courgettes are also on the way. I have no kind of garden so will not be picking any of the above in the near future, but I’m rather partial to a courgette soup, so it’ll be good to see some English courgettes around.

The book also recommends using the freezer in May to prep vegetables for when they’re needed in the Summer. I guess it makes sense to blanch and freeze them in small quantities but it doesn’t half sound like a lot of messing about.

Anyway, here’s a courgette soup to try, courtesy of Delia. Its very nice and soup is always easy to bash together. Bung some onion, courgette and potato in a pan to sweat with butter and garlic then add stock. You don’t need to cook it for very long before you can blend it, season it and serve it. Delia also puts cream in it, but I’ve done it without and its just as nice, if not better. Its also nice with the watercress pesto, but again, not really essential.

Also see: BBC Good Food Delia Online for more background on what’s in season.

Gordon’s Vegetable Agenda

Gordon Ramsay today launched a PR campaign to challenge UK restaurants to use only fruit and vegetables that are in-season. In summary of his comments on the subject: a) he’s pushing quality ingredients b) he’s pushing a green agenda regarding imports from around the globe and c) he’s doing it in a controversial enough way to get some very good traction.

He’s built his credibility up to the point where he’s seen as an authoritative public commentator on such issues but the reason I label it a PR campaign and not a substantive campaign is that I’m sceptical about whether the idea is really workable on a large scale. He also threw in a swipe at Delia just in case the story wasn’t strong enough.

Having become widely reliant on international imports for produce due to the growing cost of labour in the UK, it would probably not be feasible to start imposing rules like what Ramsay is suggesting on restaurateurs. It would serve to push up costs and damage the excellent and varied cuisine culture we have in this country. Where would specialist restaurants get their produce from? Could some food options disappear?

The campaign seems to have some sound motives, but as Michael Holden from Reuters points out, it doesn’t do anything for the farmers in the third world who rely on the business from large supermarkets. And, apparently importing doesn’t impact the environment anywhere near as much as one might expect. In fact, driving to the supermarket impacts the environment more than importing a pack of Kenyan green beans.

I agree that it’s good to eat in-season, it makes great sense and is an easy way of maintaining constant variety, but when it comes to eating out, you should be able to get whatever you fancy that day, that’s the whole point. If restaurants are getting lazy, their business will reflect that. Where such a campaign could be targeted would be toward the supermarkets and any advertising to push seasonal produce would probably also affect restaurants.

How about starting by asking supermarkets to advertise what’s in season a little better?

Food in Season: April

I’m trying to try and eat a bit more in season where possible. It’s a natural way of gaining variety and an intuitive way of routinely searching for new recipes. Well, it’s a bit late in April, but here are a few things that are in season:

• Watercress – always good in salad, also good for a pureed pesto to go with green soup like spinach or courgette soup
• Asparagus – good as a soup or just grill or griddle and serve on the side of a main meal
• Jersey Royal new potatoes – best boiled on the side of a meal but also great, as Delia points out, as a potato salad

More at: Delia Online.