Cheese please!

I didn't used to be the kind of person who loved cheese. My first cheese experience was as a small child and it was Smoked Cheese from Summer Isles Foods, my family's business. I was probably too wee to enjoy the strong smokey flavour and the intense texture because the rest of my childhood cheese consisted of Dairylea slices and mini-babybel. Hardly cheese at all.

Slowly and surely though I have completely come round to cheese in a big big way!
We are very fortunate in the Highlands to have a lot of good dairies around here which include Connage Diary, West Highland Dairy and Wester Lawrenceton Farm - all amazing cheese producers.
By far though, the best cheese I have tasted which is produced locally is Blue Monday - commissioned by Alex James of Blur and made in Tain by Highland Fine Cheeses. It is quite possibly the most amazing blue cheese I have or will ever taste. We tried it at Muckrach Lodge which is wonderful hotel in Speyside with a great season menu and of course, a great cheese board.

My taste for cheese made in Scotland is limited though. I went to Paris for New Year and while we were there we sampled some amazing cheeses and now I am a true convert - there are few UK cheese which can compare to what we had in France. May I bring the following to the attention of the Jury:
Camembert au Calvados - quite honestly the loveliest cheese I have ever tried
Tomme de Savoie - a subtle cheese but packs a punch!

If I only had to eat one cheese for the rest of forever I think it would be Camembert au Calvados spread on a fresh baquette...with a glass of red wine. I would be in heaven.

Now, that covers Scotland and France - the Auld Alliance. Yes we make good cheeses.
But which cheese prompted me to write this addition to the blog? Well, it's a classic, you will find it in your local supermarkets, a fine selection as well but try your local deli first to get the really good stuff...which cheese am I talking about? Colston Bassett of course - the most amazing blue cheese. Not quite the same league as Blue Monday but worth investing in some oatcakes to accompany it...but where will you get your oatcakes?  That is another blog...

Jamie and Julia have kept me busy

It's been a while since I last wrote. I wish I could say I've been cooking up a storm in the kitchen but to be honest we have been eating simple fayre recently. Also, I wasn't sure if anyone was really reading this so it didn't seem like a good use of time (when I could have been cooking!) but I was delighted this week when a friend forwarded me an email from a restaurant she is a 'member' of. The email was their regular monthly newsletter with news about their new branch opening in Edinburgh and also giving thanks to their fans who support them - including yours truly! They linked to my blog and everything. So thank you to Chop Chop for linking to me and once again, I highly recommend Chop Chop in Edinburgh. In fact I need to book a table very soon for our next trip down to Edinburgh.

So cooking hasn't been too high on the agenda recently although we did have some friends over for dinner a couple of weeks ago and went for a Moroccan theme. It was going to be quite a spread so we didn't have a starter but had a huge main course. My partner prepared some Kebabs, lamb and chicken. Marinated overnight so the meat was lovely and tender. We had hoped to cook them on the BBQ but the weather was against us. We served the kebabs with Salad Insalata, beetroot with pistachio sauce and carrot with orange & coriander. I also rustled up some flat breads and some garlic prawns and crabmeat! See what I mean? A huge selection to choose from. I really like those meals where you put everything in the middle of the table and you just help yourself. These recipes were from the Moro East Cookbook and the new Jamie Does....book - I can't praise it enough. I love the new Jamie Oliver book - think I will try something from the Italian section next.

We finished the evening with another Jamie Oliver recipe - Snakey Cakey - it's actually something else in the book but roughly translates as Snakey Cakey. It's a lovely filo pastry coiled cake - stuffed with a rich almond and zesty filling. It's just to die for and when served with vanilla ice cream it's the perfect way to end a meal - I'm going to make it again as soon as we have someone else round! Anyone hungry?

So I guess I have plugged a lot of cook books - can I plug one more? I recently bought the Julia Child "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" which has been an eye opener. You think you know how to cook? Cook the basics? My friend, you are probably wrong.
I found out today that I have been preparing asparagus wrong all my life! It is asparagus season now so I recommend getting some - it tastes great and as a wee treat it's worth the price. We got ours from a farm shop just outside of Nairn but was it local? Nope - Lincolnshire! Apparently it's the finest in the UK...well, it was nice. Shame it had to travel so far.....