Lay The Table » cheese

Sweet dreams are made of cheese: Cashel Blue

Becs — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:37:36 +0000

I took a trip up to London last weekend, to say goodbye to a few friends before my big move up North and took to opportunity to re-visit Fortnum & Mason and have a look around their shop as I didn’t have time after our meal last time. The shop is pure wonderful and every London tourist should take the time to visit it. I had a hard time walking round as my jaw was permanently on the floor as I gazed in wonderment!

My highlight was the cheese counter which I shuffled around, looking at all the delicious varieties and trying to decide which one to get. I asked for a creamy blue stilton – one of my favourite types of cheese. The assistant suggested Cashel Blue and gave me a little bit to try. The intense creaminess made the cheese almost melt in my mouth and then the intense (but not over-ripe) taste backs up the stilton. It reminds me a lot of Isle of Wight Blue, which I bought in Newport last summer.

One of my favourite sandwiches is stilton, salami, spinach and red onion chutney, but this cheese is too special to mix up with other flavours – taste it on its own or I’ve tried it with a bacon sandwich! Yum!

Cashel Blue is an Irish stilton, made on a single farm in Tipperary. Find out more about Cashel Blue here.

Stilton, bacon and red onion tartlets

Becs — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:24:34 +0000

We’ve packed away the decorations and laid the Christmas songs to rest for another year, but what’s left in your fridge? Admittedly, I didn’t have the stilton left in the fridge, it was on the clearance shelf at the supermarket and I do so love blue cheese!

27mins – Prep time: 15mins – Cooking time: 12mins

{Makes: 12}

Ingredients

1 pack ready rolled puff pastry (375g)
180g bacon lardons
60g stilton
1/2 red onion

Instructions

Oven temp: 140°C/390°F

Grease 12 hole bun tin and cut out circles just larger than the holes in the tin. Gently push the circles into the holes using your knuckles.
Gently fry off the bacon and onions in a pan over a medium heat. The onions will cook in the lardon fat and will soften. Don’t overcook the bacon, the oven will finish the job!
Divide the bacon and onions evenly between the 12 holes.
Crumble the stilton over the tops of the tartlets.
Bake in the oven for 12 minutes, until the pastry starts to brown a little and the stilton has melted down.

Review: Snowdonia Cheese – Red Devil

Becs — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:25:54 +0000

I bought three cheeses from Snowdonia cheese when I found their stand in the food hall at the Norfolk Show. They make gorgeously waxed cheese truckles which taste as good as they look! I sampled all of them and settled upon Green Thunder (with garlic & herbs), Ginger Spice (with bits of stem ginger) and Red Devil (with chilli’s and crushed pepper). I loved all of them and they all taste great on biscuits and I used Green Thunder with some tomato and pasta dishes. But for me, Red Devil was an instant favourite, and the one I nibbled through first.

Red Devil has just the right blend of spice to ensure it’s not overpowering and remains completely morish. I have found that it makes the most incredible tasting cheese on toast and melts well. The cheese is mature but allows the additional seasoning to mix well with it.

I decided I just had to have some more of this cheese myself, and when my chiller boxed arrived by next day delivery, I was super excited to taste it again. You can order cheese from the Snowdonia Cheese online store and it costs £5 for overnight delivery in a chiller box. The minimum order value is £21 or 6 truckles.