Source it, cook it, eat it
Because if you do it three times a day, you might as well get it right!Archive for Cheese
Cheese Can Be Heathly…
I recently said to someone that I’ll eat anything with chese in, but on reflection, I’d revise that to anything with nice cheese in! Horrible cheeses aren’t worth bothering with, so I’m keen on trying to find ways to eat better quality cheese in decent proportions. As I’ve got a great pantry with a strong selection of cheeses near me, I’m going to find some more recipes to use sensible portions in. Rather than what I normally do… which is buy slabs of cheese and then quaffe them with biscuits over the course of a few days. Not healthy.
I found out that some of my colleagues that work in my building do the public relations for Grana Padano and they’re doing something up this very street.
They’re currently working on a number of campaigns including drawing people to a website that looks at the various ways you can use Grana Padano. It includes an ‘eating plan’ with various ideas that include pasta, omelette, cheese sauce, salad and bruscetta. Obviously, the idea is not that you plan your life around Grana Padano, but it has some encouraging ideas around how you can use hard cheses like this to add some good flavour to simple cooking. Normally I just sprinkle some on top of pasta so its good to have some more ideas.
Here’s one of the ideas that I think I’m going to have a try…
Pasta with Grana Padano, sundried tomatoes & pine nuts
(Calories 392, Fat 12.8g, Saturated fat 3.1g per serving)
Ingredients
• 40g pasta, uncooked weight
• 10g Grana Padano cheese, grated
• 3 cherry tomatoes
• 2 sundried tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tbs of toasted pine nuts
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 handful of watercress or rocket
Instructions
1. Prepare the pasta following on pack instructions, omitting
any suggested fat or salt. Mix most of the Grana Padano
into the pasta.
2. Mix the cheesy pasta with cherry tomatoes, sun-dried
tomatoes, pine nuts, and oregano. Sprinkle the remaining
Grana Padano over the pasta and serve with a side of
rocket or watercress.
Source it… In Pitshanger Lane, Ealing
I’ve increasingly been finding that I can get almost everything I want locally, without having to go to a supermarket. Now that a I see a new butcher is opening up in Pitshanger Lane, which is where I do my ‘ping, I’ll be able to get almost everything locally. Below I’ve mapped out the main independent food shops in Pitshanger, all of which I regularly use. For heavy items and general stocking up on detergent etc I do a quarterly-ish Tesco delivery.
These include:
- T H Carr - Fishmonger (which I’ve mentioned a few … times)
- Rays Fruit Bowl - Grocer
- The Village Pantry - Delicatessen
- Pitshanger Village Bakery
- McCreadies – Butcher
Best of all, they’re all very close together, as you can see on this map!
Do you use local shops as much as possible? If not, have you got a reason; really, I’d be interested to know if they are poor quality, or inconvenient etc.
Gordon’s Wine Bar – New Cellar!
Exciting news for fans of earth
y cheese-and-wine venue Gordon’s Wine Bar.
The place is going to get slightly bigger, which will be exciting news for the many who know and love the place. The current wine cellar (located at the back – see picture) is going to be made available for seating space and most shockingly of all, the new seating area is going to be …wait for it… available for bookings. A serious break from tradition.
Most people remember the place for being a busy and intimate place, where it’s always hard to get a seat. I suspect many traditionalists will wonder how the changes will affect the feel and atmosphere. As the place hasn’t changed barely at all in its many years of existence, some will probably greet the news with apprehension, while pragmatists like myself will most likely wonder how the hell they’ll enforce the bookings in one section, when the place is fit to burst with commuters on a Friday.
Personally I don’t think the atmosphere will be negatively affected and I’ll definitely welcome the fact that it will make the place more accessible for less mobile people.
Says Simon Gordon:
“Finally, we are soon going to be breaking through from behind the bar to an old and unused cellar which continues on from Gordon’s – this is something I have been working on for 3 years and my father had tried to lease it many years before that, so it is the culmination of a lot of perseverance.”
I’ll be sure to do some primary research once the changes are made to check the wine and cheese are still okay. 
Blessed are the Cheesemakers
Cheese is definitely my favourite vice – the flavour of good cheese along with some wine or port is fantastic to enjoy whether as a light meal in itself or in place of a dessert course. My friend, who has been living in France for the last 6 months or so, just popped in for a few days and brought me some fantastic cheese.
My fondest memory of cheese eating is when holidaying in Saint Pierre sur Dives with my parents at the age of about 15. We went to the local market to buy a few cheeses, bread and wine. Not only was the buying itself an experience, due to being able to try a fantastic range of interesting flavours, but we ate the cheese at a beautiful round stone table with fresh baguette and locally produced wine. The weather was very hot but we were sitting under a tree so we were cool in the breeze and shade. I’ve been hooked since.
The cheeses that my friend brought from Toulouse were Ardi Gasna Fermier and Itxassou – neither of which I’d tried before. The Ardi Gasna is a hard, ewe’s milk cheese which has a delicate nutty taste. Ardi Gasna is a Basque phrase for sheep’s cheese and the milk originates in the Pyrenees. The Itxassou region also has Basque roots and this blue cheese has a nice deep flavour, but without a harsh aftertaste that you often get with sheep’s cheese.
I can feel a trip to France coming on!
