698. Selsig Morgannwg

For those who don’t recognise it, selsig morgannwg is Welsh. It means Glamorgan sausages. Since moving back to Cardiff I’ve loved seeing all the Welsh again. It’s a weird language, but it’s a pretty awesome one, it still looks like it was invented hundreds of years ago and hasn’t changed since. Glamorgan sausages are actually a vegetarian dish. You mix caerphilly cheese with breadcrumbs, spring onions and seasoning, coat them in egg and more breadcrumbs and then pan-fry them. I served mine with roasted tomatoes and rocket. Yum.

698 down, 1098 to go

690. Taleggio

Taleggio was another of the cheeses I picked up at Wally’s recently. It’s an Italian cheese which has a texture similar to brie so I used it in the same ways as I would use that. For this dinner I stuffed the chicken breasts with some of the taleggio, then wrapped them in bacon before roasting them in the oven. I also roasted all my veggies in the same tray so that they would pick up the bacon flavour and any of the lovely melty cheese that escaped!

690 down, 1106 to go

689. Tilsiter

Lately every time I’ve gone shopping in town, I’ve had to pop into Wally’s Deli to pick up a treat or two. Usually I end up getting at least one piece of cheese as they have such a great selection. On this occasion I picked up the tilsiter, which is a German cheese, though in terms of flavour and texture it was most similar to Swiss cheeses. I used it in a few things, including these mini cheese on toasts made on an English muffin.

689 down, 1107 to go

679. Welsh Rarebit and 680. Buck Rarebit

Both Welsh rarebit and Buck rarebit were on the list even though they are very similar - a Buck rarebit is just a Welsh rarebit with a poached egg on the top. Welsh rarebit is a fancy version of cheese and toast, where the cheese is mixed with dark beer, egg and flavourings like Worcestershire sauce to make a really rich topping. You then spread that over the toast and grill it. I found it a little overpowering - the combination of strong cheese and strong beer was quite a lot to take. The Buck rarebit was much nicer though, the egg added an extra creamy element which cut through the strong beer flavour and made the overall taste much more pleasing.

680 down, 1116 to go

665. Gjetost

This was another of the picnic-style lunches that I like so much. I’d visited Wally’s delicatessen in town so I picked out a bunch of list items to make up a pretty fancy meal. The first thing was gjetost, which is a Norwegian brown cheese. It’s a caramelised cheese made from boiled whey, and it ends up having a fudgey texture and a sweet taste. It was just about the weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten in my whole life. Neither the texture nor the taste was anything like any other cheese I’ve ever had. It wasn’t bad per se, it was just so confusing to my mouth that I don’t think my brain really knew what to do with it. It retains a vague hint of cheesiness, but that is overshadowed by the sweetness, so you’re left kind of unsure as to whether you’re actually eating a cheese or if it’s really some odd type of candy. I ended up offering tastes to a bunch of my friends and family and they all had similar experiences.

666. Ajvar

Ajvar is a sauce made from red peppers. I used it here as a dip for veggies, but I think it would also be really nice for a lot of other uses. I’m going to try adding it to grilled cheese sandwiches, and I think it would be great as a ready-made pasta sauce.

667. Prosciutto di San Daniele and 668. Finochionna Salami

I also got a couple of meats from the charcuterie counter. Prosciutto di San Daniele is an Italian ham, which I found was really just very similar to any other kind of prosciutto or Parma ham I have tried in the past. The finochionna salami is a salami made with fennel seed and, as someone who isn’t a huge salami fan, I found it delicious. It was really meaty with a hint of spiciness and sweetness.

668 down, 1128 to go

609. Edam

I bought this cookbook in Greece of traditional Greek recipes, and when I was browsing through it the other week I found a recipe for a mac and cheese pie. Yes. You heard that right. Mac and cheese PIE. And on top of that it also included sausage. Mac and cheese + pastry + sausage. Of course I immediately thought that this sounded like the single best idea I’d ever heard and rushed to the store to buy the ingredients to make it for dinner.

To make a bit of a change from cheddar, I chose edam as the cheese. I thought that with the sausage and pastry, choosing a slightly milder, lighter cheese would probably be advisable. Edam still has enough of a cheesy flavour to make it good for a mac and cheese though.

Basically, to make the pie, you make a homemade cheese sauce and boil the pasta like you normally would for a mac and cheese. At the same time, grill the sausages. Slice them up when you’re done and mix the macaroni, cheese sauce and sausage together. Pile it all into an oven dish, cover the top with storebought puff pastry (get the all-butter stuff if you can find it, it’s so much better) and bake for like 20 minutes. Voila, awesomest dinner ever. As you can see I served mine with some green salad to try and pretend that it was the unhealthiest meal ever. But frankly when something tastes this good, who cares.

609 down, 1187 to go

604. Mutter Paneer

Indian food! YAY! Mutter paneer is a vegetarian curry of paneer (which is an Indian curd cheese) and peas. It sounds a little weird but it’s super tasty. The paneer has that usual squeaky curd cheese texture which is oddly pleasing, and the peas add a nice sweetness to counter the spicy sauce.

604 down, 1192 to go

590. Broccoli and Stilton Soup including 591. Stilton

As far as I’m concerned, broccoli and stilton is by far the best use for stilton. By itself I find stilton too strong and overpowering. However, in this soup, it loses that pungent blue cheese taste and just blends into a lovely salty tang which permeates the bowl. Also, unlike a lot of people I actually really like broccoli.

591 down, 1205 to go

583. Gougeres

On Boxing Day, we had a buffet dinner at home. One of my half-sisters is mostly vegetarian so I wanted to make sure there were plenty of non-meat options. I’ve been wanting to try gougeres for a while as, well, they’re a puff of cheesy pastry, what’s not to love about that? They make a perfect finger food so this seemed like a great time to give them a go. They are actually really really easy. You make a basic choux pastry, add cheese, then pipe onto a tray and bake for 20 minutes.

584. Devilled Eggs

Devilled eggs seemed like another great finger food to add to the party spread. I love hard-boiled eggs, I love spices, and I love them both together. I’ve seen quite a few different things added to them in various recipes, but personally I just mix the egg yolks with mayonnaise, mustard, cayenne pepper and curry powder.

585. Bleu d’Auvergne

We also had a cheeseboard, which featured Bleu d’Auvergne which is a French blue cheese. I’m not always the biggest fan of blue cheeses because sometimes I find them a bit too strong for my taste, but this was really delicious (I went back for seconds). In fact, my family commented that ‘If Laura recommends a blue cheese, it must be good’ and they all tried it and agreed that it was really great. It was a milder, creamy kind of blue cheese - like a dolcelatte, and I would strongly suggest that you give it a try.

585 down, 1211 to go