Irish Cheese at Homage 2 Fromage

This morning, over a huge mug of black coffee, Z gave me a present.  This was completely out of the blue.  It's not my birthday for an other month, our wedding anniversary is also in April, and there are no Hallmark holidays knocking around at the moment.

Z, bless her, had bought me membership for Homage 2 Fromage, Leeds' very own cheese club.  I've been going to the monthly cheese tasting nights for a couple of months but I was in two minds about becoming a fully paid up member.  Even though the perks of memberships are good (discounts at some of the finest cheese emporiums in Leeds and cheap entry to the cheese nights themselves) I wasn't sure I wanted to make the commitment.  Fortunately Z knows me better than I know myself.

I happily walked into town with my new membership card in-tow, not really knowing what to expect from Irish cheese.  I was in for an eye watering treat.  My limited experience of Irish cheese in the past was some rather disappointing cheddar.  Tonight none of the past rubberiness was on display.  Vickie and Nick (the grand fromages) managed to source four fantastic cheeses including; Cashel Blue, Gubbeen - a soft and mild cows milk cheese washed in wine, and Boilie - small balls of goats cheese which are stored in oil with garlic and herbs. 

The fourth cheese falls into the "cheese-gimmick" category.  It was a Porter cheese made with Irish stout.  I'm not keen on cheese with *insert non cheese item here* at the best of times.  Often it's fruit and I tend to avoid it as I'm always disappointed.  But I was here to taste cheese so I gave it a go.  The cheese itself was inoffensive, a mild cheddar stained brown with the stout.  My biggest problem with this type of cheese is that the balance is never right.  The stout needed to be much more prominent and in your face, this in turn would require a more robust cheese, but then I am no cheese maker.

Fortunately, Richard Bissett from Cooleeney IS a cheese maker.  He brought three cheeses with him for us to try tonight.  Durrus and Gortnamona were both great cheeses, Durrus was probably my favourite cheese of the night.  But the one that everybody was talking about come the end of the night was Cooleeney Farm House cheese.  I'm not sure what it was that made it so magical.  It was so soft it should have been melted but it was fresh from the pack.  The rind was reminiscent of camembert without being quite so pungent and the cheese itself so was beautifully creamy.  The fact that it almost ran off the biscuits added an extra bit of fun and jeopardy to the evening.

Tagliatelle Carbonara

Whilst flicking through our folder of recipes* last night, looking for the Moroccan Chicken recipe, I came across yet another household favourite, carbonara.  I've loved this creamy, cheesy pasta sauce since well before I left home.  Admittedly the first time I had carbonara it was from a jar and there is still a place for the cook-in sauce.  That place just isn't my kitchen

The recipe I unearthed was a James Martin one from UKTV Food.  Cook your pasta as normal and fry off some bacon in a separate pan.  Once these are cooked, crack on with the sauce.  In a bowl mix together 150ml of double cream, grated parmesan, lots of black pepper and parsley.  Then beat in five egg yolks!

Once the pasta is drained stir it through the bacon and then, off the heat, stir in the egg and cream mix.  The residual heat will be more than enough to cook out the sauce and there is no danger of the eggs scrambling.  Just in case there aren't enough calories on your plate grate over some more cheese.  This is pure luxury on a plate.

*I know that I keep banging on about not following recipes but everybody starts somewhere and we have had this folder for about 16 years.  It contains hand written notes, photocopies and screen grabs from the internet.  Most of them are grubby and look worse for wear.

Moroccan Chicken

Since I started writing Tonight's Menu, I have learnt a couple of things about my eating habits and preferences.  Firstly, it turns out that we eat a lot of chicken.  If you look down the list of links at the side of the page you'll see that chicken has far and away the most posts.  We only eat free range birds.  We buy them whole and butcher them at home so that we have portions ready for any occasion.

Secondly, I have realised that I am really into Moorish cooking and flavours.  I already knew that I liked Spanish food, but I hadn't really considered the extent of its roots or how often I want to eat something inspired by the flavours of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula.

In the warmer months we eat a lot of warm salads and spiced grilled meat for our evening meals but the spices that the Moors introduced to Spain are great for winter warmers.  Tonight we revisited a recipe that we have had knocking around since our early university days, Moroccan Chicken.

Chicken legs work wonderfully in this one pot dish which is handy as that was all that was in the freezer.  We didn't have all of the actual ingredients to hand so we improvised a little.  A sliced onion, a couple of carrots cut into batons, a couple of cloves of garlic and the chicken are placed into a pan along with half a pint of stock (chicken or veg).  A teaspoon each of ground cumin, coriander, cinnamon and chilli add the spicy kick and a tablespoon of honey adds a mellow sweetness.  After 25 minutes simmering I added a tin of blackeye peas and some chopped parsley and let it cook for 10 more minutes.

In the recipe the carrots are courgettes, added for the last 10 minutes.  The blackeye peas are meant to be chickpeas.  Neither of these forced changes made the finished meal any less enjoyable.  In fact the carrots added an additional sweetness to the honey so I'll probably add them in next time and make a note in our recipe book.

Piri Piri Pork Chops with Savoury Rice

Last week I made piri piri chicken for our Friday Night Take-away.  It was great but it has left me with a jar of marinade sat in the fridge.  Although I could quite happily tuck into spicy chicken on a regular basis, we don't happen to have any more chicken in the house.  What we do have is a couple of pork chops.

To my mind the largest piri piri franchise in Britain are missing a trick.  I've often wondered why the chain in question don't serve free range chicken.  I have even asked this of an employee and the response, straight out of the corporate feed was "we sell too much chicken to use free range."  I pondered at the time why they didn't use other meat, as well as chicken, to ensure that the highest animal welfare was maintained.  The answer was along the lines of "because we do chicken".  I've not been back since.

Our chops were marinated for a couple of hours and then grilled.  This is exactly the same process I would use for chicken.  In an ideal world I be slapping the meat on a barbecue but we don't have the space outside.  Savoury rice is a really simple accompaniment.  Fried vegetables, what ever you have to hand, are stirred through boiled long grain rice.  We had sweet peppers, spring onions, peas and sweetcorn.

Beef Stew

As it's the weekend we decided that a long slow cook would give us the most family time and require the least time at the stove.  It also meant that I could spend a bit more time knocking our house about.  Having lived in it for over 10 years we are now trying to give our house its Victorian charm back.  The latest challenge is reinstating the fireplace in the living room and striping back the floorboards. But this is a food blog not a DIY blog so I'll move on.

To give us the required time to get on with things we decided on a beef stew.  As usual we didn't have a recipe to hand but we did have a pack of Swillington Farm braising steak, onions and celery.  The only decision to be made was, what liquid to cook the meat in.  I fancied Guinness but Z rightly pointed out that St Patrick's Day is around the corner so we skipped that one.

In the end a bottle of red wine ended up in the stew along with some carrots for extra bulk.  We dusted the beef in flour, seasoned with salt, pepper and mustard powder, before frying it off.  It helps to thicken and season the final stew and takes so little time that it's definitely worth doing.  After three and a half hours we served the stew with steamed broccoli and boiled potatoes.

I will not be doing a post tomorrow (Sunday 4th March 2012) as we are going to a friend's dedication party.  Normal service will be resumed on Monday.

Yorkshire Chicken Mole

I go to an awful lot of food events these days.  Fares, markets, festivals, you name it.  If it's within easy reach I'll try my hardest to be in attendance.  I may well be reaching my tolerance of cupcake stalls at these events however.  I know they are going to be good, but there are now so many "Professional" cupcakeists out there that I can no longer tell one from another.  It's particularly galling when you have multiples at the same festival.

Duplication happens all to often.  It is not the fault of the vendor, they apply for a stall and their money is duly taken.  The blame (if there is any to apportion) needs to lie at the feet of the organisers.  I'm not claiming to be able to do any better but variety is the spice of life.  If was attending a chutney fair I'd expect wall-to-wall chutney but a food and drink festival should have variety at its forefront.

Last weekend's Wakefield Food, Drink and Rhubarb festival was over-run with cupcake, fudge and pork pie stalls.  Much more variety was needed to make me want to go again next year.  If there had been one cake stall or one pie stall I might have felt inclined to buy some.  Unfortunately, and very out of character, I wasn't in the market for pork pies.  One of my other destinations in Wakefield was Hofmann and Sons butchers.  I had been tipped off that their pies were worth the train fare alone.

The pies were good, but they were secondary to the main reason for getting the train to Wakefield.  At a food event in Leeds last year I had tried a spicy chocolate orange jam and was bowled over by it.  I found out about the Wakefield festival from The Chilli Jam Man, the person behind this incredible jar of joy.  As soon as I knew he was in attendance we had to go so that I could share the flavour of the chocolate sauce with Z.

Tonight is the first time we have cooked with it and we kept it simple so the flavours would shine.  We coated chicken breasts with the chocolate orange chilli jam and roasted them.  We served them with a warm salsa of peppers, onions and tomatoes.  If you haven't tried a chocolate mole before this is the simplest way in.

Welsh Dragon Sausages and Mash - Happy St David's Day

There are some things in life that it is perfectly acceptable to have favourites of.  Favourite football team: Leeds United.  Favourite graphic artist: Pete Fowler.  Favourite holiday destination: Barcelona.  There are other things where favouritism can be a bit more tricky.  You shouldn't really have a favourite child* and you certainly shouldn't have a favourite parent's nationality.

My Dad was Scottish and my Mum is Welsh.  The 5 Nations (now 6) always brought raised national pride especially between my Dad and Granddad.  I always felt torn between the two and see myself as half Scottish and half Welsh.  The only time I don't want either team to win is when they play each other.

My spilt-national-personality does come with its advantages.  I celebrate an extended number of national days.  Already this year we've toasted Robbie Burns with a haggis supper and today we're celebrating St David, the patron saint of Wales.

On a recent trip to an other one of my favourites, B&J Callard butchers on Leeds Kirkgate Market, I found Welsh Dragon Sausages**.  I duly bought half a dozen and put them aside for tonight.  Simply grilled and served with mashed potatoes they make a great mid week treat.  To make the meal that little bit more Welsh I added fried leeks to the mash. Mwynhewch eich bwyd!

*unless you only have one in which case it should be that one. 
**the sausages contain NO dragon.  There was a case in 2006 where Powys trading standards asked a butcher to re-label his Welsh Dragon Sausages, not because they didn't contain dragon but because it was too ambiguous that they contained meat.  The ingredients stated the per cent of pork that was in the sausage but that wasn't good enough for the man from the council. "I don't think anyone would imagine that dragon meat was being used but we would not want vegetarians to buy the sausages believing they were meat free."