Easy baked camembert for winter nights

Yes, it is cold outside. I feel you.

Yes, there is a curfew. I feel you.

Yes, you are spending the evening in…again… but it does not have to be boring. You can indulge yourself or your parter…or the friend who is sleeping over at your place with this great 15-20 easy but delish recipe to pair with the white wine you choose for this evening. Yes, because this time you choose white, like a good Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris or anything nice and dry. It as a great combo to warm up your heart, evening and the oven … 😉

So here you are, easy as abc.

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Ingredients

• 1 wheel camembert (in box)
• 1-2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoons fresh sage
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• Sea salt
• Pepper
• Bread (for serving)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC .Leave the camembert in the box and cover it with aluminium foil to keep the melting cheese , in case it goes a bit over the top. 🙂 Only the side and the bottom, do not close it on top!
2. Score the top of the cheese in a crosshatch pattern.
3. Finely slice 1-2 peeled garlic cloves and poke them into the wholes on the top of the cheese with a few sage tips. Drizzle with a little olive oil, sea salt, pepper and / or pepper flakes then bake in the hot oven for 15 minutes.
4. Cut bite-sized pieces of any bread you like and lay them on a tray and pop in the oven to cook with the camembert for 5 more minutes.
5. Pour a glass of wine, sit down on the couch and enjoy the evening ❤

Tadddaaa… ENJOY! ❤

Cheese stor(ie)s – Fromage, Budapest

I thought it might be a good idea to to share my experiences with you guys in regards cheese stores around the globe, since now in Budapest I am telling you about Fromage on Pozsonyi street in the 13th district.

The place is just overall gorgeous with a quite nice variety of cheeses, wines, liquores, jams, Italian sweets, charchuterie and breads. So if you love small scale gourmet food then that is your place to go.

The store itself is not bigger than 8 square meters but it is full of goodies from floor to ceiling ( I love these kind of places), also the service is excellent.

This gem is not only for takeaway though, but if you have some time you can ask for a nice glass of Prosecco or whatever you want and a custom made cheese platter that you can enjoy just outside of the place since they have 2-4 small tables. And after that you might just go back and grab some more stuff the you can indulge yourself with.

Unfortunately, I could only ask for takeaway now some Italian salami, a CreMonte and a Gorgonzola Cremificato. I cannot help it, I just love all froms of bleu….

CreMonte is a pasteurized cow milk blue-brie originally made in Germany. It has a creamy, mild texture and mild, spicy flavour.

Gorgonzola Cremificato is smooth and creamy in texture. The cheese is mild and relatively sweet in taste with a rich and grassy aroma.

Both cheese could go well with fresh pears, apple and a sprinkle of honey.

If you would like to pair them with wine they would go well with Pinot Blanc, Sauternes and Moscato Passito or any kind of strong dessert wine that could match the strength and richness of the cheeses.

Enjoy 🙂

Transylvanian farm cheese #1

It is great to be back in Budapest for a short while since I have been missing not just my mom’s great dishes but good Hungarian farm-style cheese too as well as cheese making myself… but that is another topic.

Since my apartment is quite close to the farmer;s market I went down today to look around but I sadly had to realize that my favorite specialty stores have all closed due to the pandemic hopefully not forever.

This time I bumped into a cute cheese place serving mostly farm-style cheese from Transylvania and this is just what I needed that point. Lovely fresh cheese made with care and love 🙂

I did try 3 for this time that I would like to recommend some pairing with :

1.6 months old semi-hard Trappist monk style, cow mil cheese ( from Torocko)

6 months old Trappist Monk cheese made in the Transylvanian countryside. Creamy, buttery cowmilk cheese with some nutty notes.

& pairing : Pinot Grigio or Riesling.

2. 2 years old semi-hard cow milk cheese (from Tekerőpatak )

2 years old semi-hard cow milk cheese from Tekerôpatak, Transylvania. Great Swiss-style cheese with earthy and complex characteristics .

& pairing : Cava, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling

& pairing : Brown ales and Pilsners

3. Fresh sheep cheese

Fresh sheep cheese No unnecessary additives just a tiny pinch of salt and it becomes your best friend for the summer. Ideal for summer salads

& pairing : ideal with crisp, dry and young bottlings like Pinot Blanc, Verdejo, young Chardonnay and of my all time favorite Sauvignon Blanc.

Kaasbar Amsterdam, heaven for cheese lovers.

Finally, a place that I have been looking for. Stylish, great variety of local artisan cheese, good cheese-wine pairing recommendations ( thankfully not forced) and great service.

I love that finally a place could come over the idea of farm cheese presented on farms next cows, barns and the lovely land. Don’t get me wrong, I love farms and animals, but bringing a great variety of cheese, knowledge about cheese and the chance to choose really unique, tasty and rich cheese and enjoying them with great wines is something extremely important to create the demand for good cheese. As long as people are only given the chance to buy packaged, sliced cheese in supermarkets we cannot really expect them to have a better understanding of cheese or have the craving to try something new, something lot more of quality, lot more exciting.

That’s why I would highly recommend the Kaasbar in Amsterdam. If you are in town you got to try it.!

Here are some hints from the experience and the cheese I tried so far, although I am probably going to be back soon to try the whole variety.

What I tried ( from left to right) :

1.Brabants Blauw with medjool date & grasshopper (from Bastiansen)

2. Boeren Mulder Vergeten Kaas with red pesto & zucchini spaghetti (from Mulder)

3. Reade Jutter with onion chutney & red beetroot, seeds and pips ( from De Terschellinger)

4. Le petit Doruvael Truffel with lemon curd & red pepper fried spring rolls ( from Boerderij Doruvael)

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Easy beetroot and goat cheese salad

I know it’s been a while since I posted anything, but I was super busy with work and traveling again and I tried to gain some inspiration from my trips, my plans for a lifestyle change and just be so much more creative then before. I decided that I will try to use only seasonal products to create recipes and make easy, healthy and also extraordinary tastes. I will slowly get back to blogging again and I hope you’ll enjoy my creatures with cheese again and give feedback on what you’d like to see here and what kind of cheese, spices and ingredients you’d want me to try to make something new and groundbreaking.  🙂

Because you all know there is no food without cheese  🙂

So here’s an easy beetroot salad that you can have for lunch or dinner…or breakfast if you’d like…

Ingredients:

• • 200 gramms of beetroot
  • 1 or 2 small carrots
  • 1 apple ( I used Golden, but if you like you can use a more sour kind )
  • parsley
  •  pomegranate
  • salt & pepper
  • fresh goat cheese

Steps:

1. Peel the veggies and cut them into 2×2 cm cubes
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180 Celsius
3.  Put the beetroot, carrot to the own with a pinch of salt, pepper and spill some olive oil on it. Bake it for 25 mins till the veggies start get soft then add the chopped apples as well. ( If you feel it is getting dry, add a 0, 5 dl water )
4. Bake it for an additional 15 mins till the apple gets soft as well.
5. Pour the baked veggies to a bowl
6. Cut the goat cheese to small pieces, chop parsley and stir it together with the veggies.
7. To finish strew the seeds of a half pomegranate on top and it is ready to be served.  Enjoy 🙂

Hello world!

So I decided to start a blog to share my love of cheese and to educate you a little bit more about the history, the differences and all the possibillities that can be found in small piece of a smelly heaven.

Cheese itself is one of the most interesting and verstile foods you can possibly encounter and I would like to show you how many sides, distinct flavours and types it has and how indulgent it could be in parings with beer or wine or just added in a pie or main dish.

Let me take you closer to your inner cheese person and turn you to be a passionate cheese lover….

Please feel fee to comment, advise about the post or share you experiences with the different types of foods or anything related to this topic.

Cheese, love, rock&roll 😉

Cheesy trips in Dutchland #1

I have been traveling a lot to Amsterdam recently due to my new job and to be honest I am more than blown away by the tremendous amount of delicious cheese I can get there.

Basically what we know about Dutch cheese here in Hungary has nothing to do with the repertoire available there in the specialty cheese store.

So I decided to make sort of an introduction of the things I tasted and planning on tasting during my trips also to make new recipes and pairings with my favorite ones so that you can enjoy them just the way I would do. 🙂

So here you go at 1st the Truffle Gouda as my all-time sweetheart.

Step #1: What is this?

Dutch farmhouse cheese (boerenkaas) made of raw milk with Italian black truffle from the mountains. Ripened on wooden planks for only 8 weeks the gentle taste of this Gouda and intense aroma of the truffle form an unlikely, yet irresistible combination.

Step #2:  What the hell is boerenkaas?

Boerenkaas is the Dutch word that’s equivalent to “farmstead” cheese. That is, cheese made from the milk of animals who live on the same farm where the cheese is made. However, the word Boerenkaas also goes one step further, requiring that all cheese labeled as Boerenkaas must also be made with raw (unpasteurized) milk.

Only a small percentage of Dutch Gouda can be called Boerenkaas.

Step#3:  Pairing ideas with wine

Since it has a really unique and mature taste itself it should be served with either an elegant, not-too-oaky, aged Chardonnay or a nicely-evolved, textured dry Riesling.

If you are in Holland for holiday or work I would recommend not to miss out on this delicious darling, but if you have no time to go the specialty store, you can always order it online 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

source:

https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-aged-gouda-591221

https://www.cheesehub.com/product/truffle-gouda-25411

 

Fresh lentil salad with feta cheese

 

 

Spring is here and it seems that being outdoors is bringing more and more ideas on what cheesy thing to take for a hiking or a simple picnic. Grilled cheese, fruits, some cold Sauvignon Blanc and how about a nice and refreshing lentil salad ???

Easy to make, easy to serve…:)

 

Ingredients:

• 2-3 bay leaves
• 200g lentils
• 20g butter
•  Thyme
•  salt
•  pepper
• 500g sweet potato peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 100g kale ( leaves torn into bite-sized pieces )
• 1 Gala or Ginger gold apple (cut into bite-sized pieces)
• A handful of baby spinach
• Feta cheese  (cut into bite-sized pieces)

 

1. Cook the lentils in salty water with the bay leaves for 12-15 mins until the lentils are tender but still have some bite. Drain to get rid of the remaining water.
2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed frying pan that has a lid, along with the thyme. Add the sweet potato and some salt and pepper, then stir to coat them in the butter. Put the lid on and cook over a medium heat for 8 mins, then add the apple.   Add a splash of water if needed and cook for an additional 5 mins.
3. Add another splash of water to the pan along with the kale and the baby spinach. Put the lid on to steam for 3-4 mins until the kale is tender.
4. Pour the lentils into the pan and stir them together.
5. Serve the salad warm or cold on a plate with the chopped Feta cheese on top.

Enjoy 🙂

 

 

Hermelin ?!! Is it an animal or food?

Hermelin… why hermelin?

The name sounds weird and at first you would think about this fluffy and soft animal not a fluffy and soft camembert like cheese. Though it is…

Hermelin is a type of Czech cheese which imitates camembert, with a coating of white mold. In restaurants, the cheese is usually served marinated in oil (nakládaný), deep-fried in breadcrumbs (smažený), grilled (grilovaný) along with Czech beer.

Why would I recommend this for Spring and Summer?

The weather is getting warmer, we drink more and more cold beer and putting ourselves into the risk of getting drunk. 🙂

So if you would like to :

a) munch on something when you are having some cups

b) want to prevent getting tipsy and singing Dua Lipa in a karaoke bar

c) just eat something very rich and flavoury and make sure you do not pick up someone (it is indeed extremely garlicy)

Then your optimal solution is marinated hermelin with rye bread toast …. and of course a pint of Czech beer.

Interested already?  There you go…

Ingredients:

• 4 rounds of Hermelin or Camembert cheese
• 1 onion& 1 purple onion ( semi-thick slices )
• 7-8 cloves garlic, sliced
• a few sprigs or rosemary
• a few sprigs of thyme
• 1 Tbsp paprika powder ( can be sweet and spicy as well)
• Approx. 2-3 dl of Sunflower or olive oil to cover (I used a mix of olive and just normal oil)
• 4 -5 bay leaves
• Pepper

Method

1. Pour a little oil into the base or a jar or sealable container
2. Put in some garlic.
3. Cut your cheese into half to make two rounds.
4. Lay all the cheese out and sprinkle with the paprika powder.
5. Place one piece of cheese into the bottom of your jar/container then a piece of onion and purple onion.
6. Layer it up and make sure you have cheese and onion in every layer
7. In a separate bowl mix up the oil with the herbs.
8. When you have finished the layering of the cheese pour in the oil mix, close the jar and put it in the fridge for 1-2 weeks (minimum 5 days) to marinade and let the flavors infuse to the cheese.
9. Serve alongside with cold beer and with toast. 🙂

GOOD APPETITE 🙂

source :

http://www.thekiwifruit.com/recipes/czech-marinated-hermelin-nakladany-hermelin/

Easy rye bread with whey :)

Have not blogged for a while but I swear it is going to change from now on 🙂

I have been travelling, working and being lazy a lot and the good weather just would not make me sit in front of my laptop however winter is coming and being cozy in my warm cave makes me wonder about creating new stuff.  Mainly easy stuff than can be done by anyone who knows how to turn on the oven 🙂

So lets start with a really delicious breakfast/ lunch / brunch / dinner material : Wholegrain rye bread made with leftover whey I had from yesterday’s cheese making 🙂

Of course if you have no whey at home you use water instead, but it definitely makes the bread creamier, more aromatic and buttery .

So if you wanna rule the breakfast or brunch you’d better try this recipe out 😉

 

 

Ingredients :

• 500 g whole grain rye flour
• 3 dl whey ( not cold)
• 2 dl water
• 2 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 10-15 gr fresh yeast ( if you use the powder please check the appropriate amount on the cover)

Preparation:

1. Mix flour, salt, sugar and oregano in a big bowl.Crush the yeast on top.
2. Pour the whey on top and start mixing the dough.
3. Add the water and keep mixing, if the the dough seems stiff you can add a little bit more water or whey.
4.  Knead the dough in the bowl manually for 10-15 minutes.

Leave it in the bowl, cover it with a table cloth and let it rest under a blanket or a warm place in the flat ( you can warm up the oven a bit as well and put in the dhough to quicken the process)

Leave to rise for 1 hour until doubled in size or place in the fridge overnight.

  5. Knead the dough again for a couple of minutes, then gently mould the dough into a ball. Place it on the baking parchment to prove for a further hour until doubled in size again.

    6. Preheat the  oven to 220 C. Dust the loaf with flour and cut a couple of lines the top of the loaf with a sharp knife. Bake for 20 minutes until dark brown, then turn down the heat to 180 C and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

TRICK: to have the inside soft and the outside crusty put a glass baking dish underneath the bread and pour 2-3 dl water in it. Keep the dish in the oven during the whole baking process.

7. Once it is done take cool on a wire rack or wooden clipboard.

 

Tadaa… better to be enjoyed with different types of cream cheeses, liver pate or just a little bit of fresh butter 🙂

ENJOOOOOY people and let me know if you liked it 🙂

 

 

 

 

<3 Summer break <3

On holiday to grab some inspiration…will be back soon 😉