Cheesy Ends

Davidstow, gawd bless ’em, sent me a sample of their of a three-year-old matured cheddar earlier this month and I put it aside in the fridge for later and then forgot about it. I don’t suppose that could do it much harm, as what’s month at the back of the fridge to a cheese that has been around for 36 months already?

I unwrapped it from its brown paper and inhaled.

I love Davidstow cheese, methinks as I sniff deeper…. I would happily put myself of an Atkins-style Davidstow only diet if they would supply me enough cheese to support this radical experiment…

My ‘three-year old’ looked at little dry around the edges but I rather like my cheese when it goes a little crunchy. It wasn’t long before a curious teenager with a more receptive nose than I turned up and started to nibble the slithers I’d been grating.

“I like that, can I have some more?” he asked. My answer was pretty short. This cheese was gold (it took three years to mature, remember?) and I knew I wasn’t going to get anymore of it.

So what to do with it? I reckoned on the theory that the stronger and tastier the cheese the further it will go. I’m about half way through my wedge now but it has been used to enhance two family meals so far.

Cornwall’s finest ice creams: ‘first and last’.

To take a tour via all of Cornwall’s best-known ice cream producers, from west to east, would be a heavenly endeavour. Imagine how many scoops of lusciousness you’d be obliged to sample. Pop into Newlyn for a Jelberts, head to the Lizard for Roskilly’s, whip on up the county via Callestick and Kelly’s in Bodmin, onto Looe for Treleaven’s and then northbound for a Boscastle rendezvous with Helsett. Or start from the east, with your back to England, where’d be your first delicious lick in Cornwall? Or before you topple off the end, belly full, whose ice cream is the full stop in this trip of divine superlatives?

The most westerly, by a tiny fraction is Moomaid’s of Zennor. Robert Monies, aged 28, and his brother Nicky make their ice cream on Tremedda Farm which has been in the family for over 100 years. At the other extreme end near Bude, Sarah Redman, 38, makes Daisy’s on Hackthorne Farm. Not only are they the county’s newest ice cream producers they are also in a very real sense both the ‘First’ and the ‘Last’ in Cornwall.

The new look for Cornwall’s glorious cream

Mmmm…..Rodda’s clotted:  an institutional Cornish favourite used to crown a proper cream tea and unchanged for more than a century. Sold for as long as I can remember, in little creamy coloured pots, and packaging with Rodda’s name in gorgeous red. I’ve worshipped the sight of it in supermarket chiller cabinets, the golden glow has given them an irresistible aura.

So imagine my surprise, being invited to see the unveiling of the new Rodda’s branding, to see not red but blue?
I must have taken a sharp intake of breath, an involuntary gasp. My heart cried: Oh what have you done? My head wanted to embrace the new logic…Blue? It looks like Deft ware, is that a good thing?

Valentine’s Treat For Cheese Lovers

A delicious Valentine gift, the ultimate gesture of a labour of love is a heart shape ‘Cornish Yarg’, from Lynher Dairies, made especially for cheese lovers and cheesy romantics.

The story of Yarg is a fairly well known one in Cornwall. First made near Liskeard by Alan Gray in his kitchen. It was called ‘Yarg’ from his surname spelt backwards. Not only was it the first ‘artisan’ cheese to be made in Cornwall since before the war, but the fact that it was also wrapped in nettles that instantly turned into a unique and distinctive Cornish product. The recipe and business was sold and the cheese is now made in West Cornwall not far from Falmouth.

The Flavour Weekly: It’s not really news anymore, but just in case anybody had forgotten…

In Cornwall we make the best cheese.

Last November, Cornish Blue was the first British cheese to win the World Champion Cheese for the first time in over a decade.

Cornish Blue is a gorgeous, creamy, ‘gorgonzola style’ cheese  – although my husband, who declares ‘Cornish Blue’ to be his favourite cheese, says this might suggest it is also unpleasantly ‘smelly’ which it is not. Cornish Blue is a mild and creamy blue cheese and a very different product from traditional strong blue cheeses such as Stilton or Dorset Blue.

It is usually eaten young when it is at its optimum best, for believe me, if you do forget and it in the fridge for too long it will turn ‘gorgonzola’ and you and start to let you know!

I’m rather partial to eating it in a sandwich with some roast beef. It’s not very original, I know, but it is so quickly snaffled in this household I don’t get the chance to think inventively.

Brandy Butter & Bread Sauce recipes with clotted cream.

In my opinion, there is only really one kind of cream – clotted cream – everything else is ‘milk’ (slightly thicker milk, sour milk or milk with air)  in comparison.

Here’s some simple recipes from Rodda’s which I’ll be using over Christmas.

Luxurious bread sauce with Rodda’s clotted cream

Perfect with turkey, chicken and game birds.

Serves 6-8 Prep time 5 minutes plus 2-24 hours steeping time Cooking time 10 minutes

Ten ‘Cornish’ best for the Christmas table.

Giving traditional Christmas Day dining a proper Cornish twist with unique food and drink specialities from the best local producers.

1. Apéritif:

Ninemaiden's Mead

‘Ninemaidens Mead’, Lanner, TR16 5TQ.

Mead, a sweet, honey-based alcohol and, was not invented in Cornwall, but has been strongly associated with the Duchy. Ninemaidens produce five different varieties: ‘traditional’, with a strong heather honey nose, and ‘spiced’, which makes an invigorating winter warmer. These could be just as easily drunk as a sweet desert wine.  ‘Apple’, ‘blackcurrant’ and ‘redcurrant’ are fruity, slightly drier but equally delicious. Honey is sourced from hives across West Cornwall and the best locally sourced ingredients are added during the brewing process.

For Christmas it can be warmed, mulled or added to a spicy winter punch. Alternatively, try their new ‘Gwires’, crystal clear distilled mead with a floral, honeyed bouquet; a great Cornish alternative to classic single malt.

Tel:(01209) 820939 / 860630 www.cornwallsolar.co.uk/ninemaidens

The Flavour Weekly: Rattler, Rodda and Cream

This week has been an eventful one. My first raw oyster at the Falmouth Oyster Festival, I admit that I should have ‘experienced’ one before now…but I’d always been a bit squeamish at the thought of swallowing anything raw, and lacking in enough hedonistic attitude to just give it a go. HOWEVER, now that I’m thoroughly knackered, 40-ish, mum with kids, I’m prepared to give anything a go that promises a boost of energy, possibly.

I didn’t experience much, except too much salty-seawater: a bit like swimming into waves and getting an unwelcome mouthful of the briny.  If I’m going to do this again it will be only at the persuasion of a chilled glass of Camel Valley.  I think I could understand the champagne and oyster bar concept then quite easily.

I’ve also been to see the holy temple that is the Rodda’s creamery this week. Sadly I was not let into the secret of how they make their clotted cream, but I did come home with a goody bag of samples to try. Put a pot of Rodda’s clotted cream in the fridge and then I’m obliged to make a dessert. Delicious, for sure, with my apple crumble, but frankly, I love the stuff so much that I can just as happily eat it straight from the pot with a spoon. Some women’s guilt pleasure might be to help themselves to a pot of Haggen Daaz in the middle of the night, but mine is surreptitiously helping myself to the tub of clotted cream in the fridge.

Roddas also produce their own milk – a by-product of all that cream, and a hand-churned, hand-patted butter (I’m yet to try). However, their most delicious surprise, by a mile, is their exquisitely creamy Crème Fraiche. I get excited just thinking about it. I’ve served it with baked potatoes, added it to pasta sauce and curry, but honestly, I’d be happy to east it neat.  It tastes refreshing, silky smooth in texture and simply delicious.

Tonight, I’ve been experiencing a nostalgic flashback to my teens.  Cider was my first introduction to alcohol and it was slightly ruined for me after too many beach-party hangovers. However, I‘ve just spent a good evening savouring a really chilled bottle of Cornish Rattler Cyder.

It sells itself as tasting good on the beach, with the sand between your toes, of a warm summer’s evening, but it doesn’t need to be. It tasted good. Proper appley, a genuine drink with a little sweetness of the apples about it, but dry enough to taste good with my curried pork supper.  I’m wholly in favour of having another one of these.

Davidstow’s cheddars are perfect for everything.

You thought it was just another ordinary supermarket cheddar?

Davidstow’s new cheeses have been long years in the making. Great for cooking yet can stand alone on the cheese board. A ‘Crackler’ and a ‘Classic’which are without a word of a lie, my very favourite cheddars.

Davidstow's new cheeses

Nathan Outlaw

Keeping true to their Cornish roots, the team at Davidstow have partnered with, Nathan Outlaw, one of the most celebrated chefs in Cornwall. Nathan endorses both cheeses as being able to be a ‘stand alone’ cheese on a cheese board, but also a versatile and excellent ingredient for cooking.

Two of Nathan’s collection of traditional Cornish recipes represent a nod to the past with a contemporary twist is included here. I’ve tried them both and they are absolutely delicious!

Kids, Garofalo pasta and grated Davidstow Cheese .

My children love pasta. It’s quick, convenient and a very easy meal to put together in and the one dish that’s guaranteed to have them all leave their plates clean at the end.

My normal, basic winning formula is to mix an ordinary, bland supermarket pasta with a tomato-based sauce made more flavoursome with a spoonful of pesto and top each bowlful with lots of tasty grated cheese. I try to give variety as much as possible with minced beef, bacon, and bits of chorizo or squeezing type of vegetables in that they would normally pick at suspiciously.

The pasta, however, is normally treated as a bland platform to support a richer, tastier food and I’ve tended to buy the cheapest ones I can find.

THE CHALLENGE:
Offering to try and then review Garofalo pasta, I thought would be a challenge in itself. For one, I wanted to know if the difference between premium pasta and a cheap one is great enough is to pay the higher price. Secondly, I wanted to see if my children could taste the difference.

Garofalo pasta is a top-selling brand in Italy, however, what chance does it have among the British at growing a loyal band of premium pasta followers?