Author Topic: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies  (Read 7583 times)

Geodyne

  • Guest
Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
« Reply #15 on: January 31, 2014, 04:42:45 AM »
Yes, drying is a worry. These have been aging in the cave for a month, so they're all going into vac bags tomorrow (bags delivered to my doorstep while I was at work today!)

Thanks for the cheese. :)

GlabrousD

  • Guest
Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
« Reply #16 on: April 07, 2014, 10:05:15 AM »
Surely they must have been tasted by now Geo... I can't stand waiting any longer :)

Cheers, GD.

Geodyne

  • Guest
Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
« Reply #17 on: April 07, 2014, 10:39:09 PM »
Hah, you're right, they have been opened.  We opened these a month ago, on my return from my business trip, and with international family visiting and a lot of birthdays to celebrate. I haven't had time to post them since. Unfortunately, the camera with the photos of their trial is now in the UK! They were three months old when we opened them, one month natural rind and two months in vacuum seal. The base flavour was a bit like an aged cheddar. Some of the  cheeses had had too much salt added, but aside from tasting salty, their texture didn't seem to be too affected. We didn't have any duff flavours and would do them all again.

We cut each cheese into quarters, ate one quarter, and sealed the other three into bags for later (two bags went to the friend who helped).

Chipotle: broken, dried chipotle boiled in water to sterilise and mixed through the cheese. A lovely smoky flavour, not too hot. A definite must-do.

Black pepper: Ground black pepper mixed through the cheese. A nice compliment to the flavour of the cheese. Would do again, but might experiment with a layer of black pepper.

Truffle salt coated with sweet spices (a homage to sottonocere al tartufo): a nice aroma but not too much flavour from the sweet spices, and a faint hint of truffle salt. I think the cheese flavour overwhelmed it, and I would like to try this with a romano.

Fajita: tomato powder, chilli powder, ground cumin, dried lemon and lime peel, mixed through the cheese: a real winner. One of our favourites.

Olive: I was nervous about this one when I made it because I was worried about the potential for mould spoilage because of the oils in the olive, but no such eventuality occured. We used good greek salt-cured olives and the flavour stood up to the maturity of the cheese well.

Curry: Freshly ground cumin, coriander, can't remember what else: didn't overpower the cheese and complimented it well.

Very salty sage: this was one of the oversalted cheeses, and the least well pressed. I fried the sage leaves in olive oil until crispy before adding them to the cheese and it adds a pleasing flavour. I'd like to try this again.

Kaffir lime: Pureed fresh kaffir lime leaf, with a little vodka. I washed this a few times with a home-made kaffir lime liqeur. The lime flavour was very delicate but very aromatic.

Lavender: this was the cheese the others were least sure about as they weren't sure about lavender flavour in food. I added dried, whole, home-grown lavender petals and the flavour was aromatic and lavendery without being overpowering.

Vodka Martini: this was a plain caerphilly, which I soaked in a vodka martini brine and then washed in a vodka martini wash. This was the most mildly flavoured of the caerphillies, even in terms of the aged flavour of the cheese. No taste of the alcohol, but I think I'd like to try this again on its own to be sure. Also, we'd consumed a bottle of champagne by the time we got to this one, so our tastebuds may have been slightly overwhelmed!

JeffHamm

  • Guest
Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
« Reply #18 on: April 07, 2014, 11:25:00 PM »
A cheese to you for a very neat selection.  Some very creative ideas in there.  Nicely done.

- Jeff

Spoons

  • Guest
Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
« Reply #19 on: April 07, 2014, 11:38:12 PM »
Thanks for the update, Geo. A cheese for you for this awesome project!

GlabrousD

  • Guest
Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
« Reply #20 on: April 08, 2014, 10:40:30 AM »
Thanks very much Geo. A Cheese to you for a brilliant write up and some fantastic ideas that have the cogs whirring in my (knackered old) mind.

The Fajita and the Curry will certainly be in my immediate future :)

I'll write them up as I try them.

Cheers, GD.

Geodyne

  • Guest
Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
« Reply #21 on: April 09, 2014, 03:01:13 AM »
Thankyou for the cheeses, all! This has been a fun project to try.

GD, knowing you're thinking of a curry cheese made me go back through my project. I suspect I made that one with whole cumin seed, and just a touch of ground coriander and garam masala.  All freshly ground.

GlabrousD

  • Guest
Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
« Reply #22 on: April 09, 2014, 04:14:13 AM »
Thanks very much Geo.

The Turmeric in the Garam Masala should lend a crazy orange/yellow colour to the cheese and should compliment the other spices. There should also be a small amount of Cardamom in there as well which is a fantastic taste.

I've made Cardamom ice-cream (with whisky to make it soft-scoop, naturally) and I love the flavour. Here in Dubai we have a very large Indian diaspora so we can get proper Chai - they also do Cardamom flavoured milk as well as the usual strawberry, chcolate & banana. Sadly they also sell Rose flavour which is jaw-breakingly sweet :)

Cheers, GD.

Geodyne

  • Guest
Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
« Reply #23 on: April 09, 2014, 05:01:12 AM »
Cardamom is one of my favourite spices. :)

I grind my own garam masala fresh each time I use it, so it would have contained cardamom, black pepper, cumin, cinnamon and cloves. No turmeric, although I have thought that I might add some the next time I try a curry-spiced cheese.

I do love what the Indians do with their food. Indian/Sri Lankan flavours are close to my heart because of family connections.  I've been spending a bit of time in and around Singapore for work lately, and always plan to gain weight when I'm there. Dhal and roti in a thousand permutations.  ;)

Geodyne

  • Guest
Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
« Reply #24 on: April 09, 2014, 09:04:57 AM »
Cheese!

I've been sent a photo of the day we broke these open.

Clockwise from top left: chipotle, kaffir lime, lavender, fajita (cut, in the back), truffle salt, olive, black pepper and sage.

GlabrousD

  • Guest
Re: A crop of little flavoured Caerphillies
« Reply #25 on: April 10, 2014, 09:14:03 AM »
I do love what the Indians do with their food.

Likewise - Curry is the English National Dish :)

I also grind my own spices as they taste so much better fresh. My FLW is a black pepper fiend and we have varieties (about 10 different types) from all around the World. May have to try a Pepper Cheese as well to keep her happy.

Cheers, GD.