Rambol is a well known cheesemaker from France. This cheese included layers of crushed and pureed walnuts. A creamy white cheese as its base, it was like a taste of Autumn (in December).
-
-
Clucking Good – How to Make a Turkey Out of Cheese
So here’s the deal. I asked my friend Alicia what I could bring to her annual “Doha Family” thanksgiving event. She said Nothing. Then I offered to bring cheese. Then the ante started to ratchet up several notches. I googled “thanksgiving + turkey+ cheese” the results were alarming. I’m talking about cheese laid out int he shape of a turkey. then I stumbled upon a cheese ball fashioned into a turkey. “Do it,” said Alicia. So the challenge was on. I don’t think anyone actually believed I could do it. About three hours in on Friday with a raging hangover and runny cheese, hell I thought I couldn’t do it.…
- Cheese, Cheese in Cooking, Doha, Feta, Greece, life, Love, Restaurant Review, seafod, Spain, Travel, White Cheese
Cheese Icecream? You had Feta Believe It
We spend a lot of our lives doing things because that’s “how they are done”. This applies to our work, our lives and even our relationships. I for one am the chief instigator of this status-quo. Sometimes because it’s just easier. Sometimes because I don’t want to take a risk. Recently I had a chance to return to one of my old haunts Al Dana at Sharq Village and Spa to try their new menu. One of the only restaurants in Doha on the sea, it goes without saying there is a heavy seafood influence. The chef hails from Greece but has lived and worked in Spain and this influence is obvious.…
-
Irish You Were Here – Sampling Galway’s Finest Cheese
It’s time to get back to basics and what this blog is about – cheese. In this case – Irish cheese. I’ve been to Ireland once when I was in my 20s. I remember landing off the ferry from the UK and the guy at the ferry terminal said: “My goodness, what an accent you have young lady”. Accent indeed. My father’s side of the family can be traced back to Ireland, my great great great etc grandmother in fact. Unfortunately, like many, she left Ireland under duress, having been fingered for pickpocketing. She landed in Australia as a convict, Parramatta in fact, and the rest they say is history.…
- Accompaniments, Cheese, Cooking, farmers cheese, Food Trends, Hotels, India, Media, Travel, White Cheese
Paneer to the Action
The thing about cheese, is that it’s actually really simple. Milk, a souring agent and time is all it takes to produce a simple white cheese. No complications. It’s when you start adding things like flavor, smokiness, rinds that things get complicated. Kind of like relationships. Except they don’t have rinds.Well, you know what I mean. I’m glad to have introduced my friends to the power of paneer and Indian cheese. It’s to the point where we actively seek it out, like DVD copies of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. We had a couple of brushes with this cheese on our recent trip to Mumbai. This included a unique paneer salad…
-
Rolled Gold – New Ways With An Old Favorite
I consider myself a semi expert on Indian paneer and cheeses. Self appointed of course. I had thought I know the whole gamut of ways to eat it until I visited The Indus in Muscat. Falling into the realm of “high end” Indian food, this restaurant really did live up to its hype. For me, the highlight of an excellent meal was their version of cottage cheese style paneer. I had never come across this treatment of the cheese before. Doodhiya Kalmiya which is cottage cheese rolls stuffed with bell peppers, potatoes and Indian spices. The cottage cheese is rolled flat and wrapped around the stuffing. It’s then cooked on a char grill.…
-
A New Leaf
So here’s the funny thing about this cheese, I actually DID take a photo of it before it was made into this: But, I must have been distracted and the photo is a complete blur (like last Friday…another story…). So i will have to use my powers of description. It was a small crottin (a pungent cheese made of goat’s milk and formed into small disks) which was wrapped in a vine leaf. It was very pretty (not pretty enough to keep me focused clearly). The cheese was clean and fresh, with that goat-milk tang I just love. The leaf was brined and while this wasn’t, I have read elsewhere that…
-
Destination Delhi
An Indian friend asked me recently “What is it with you and India?”. Good question! <a href=”http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/13089593/?claim=qvjc53vatsk”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a> It’s close to Doha. It’s truly interesting. And they have awesome food. I dragged Alicia and Lesley to Delhi a couple of months ago, promising the Taj Mahal, paneer and seven million people following us around. See in India, tall blondeish well fed white women attract attention. Everyone wants to have a photo with us I mean we’re gorgeous, so frankly who could blame them. The thing about India is when I travel there, I am hungry. All. The. Time. I believe this is because the air is thick…
-
Paneer to My Heart
There was a seminal moment on my recent girl’s weekend to Amritsar, India. When, at a famous local restaurant, the Brothers Dhaba, we ordered two more parathas. This is a flaky Indian flatbread, buttery and oily in that perfect way, served hot from the oven and irresistible. The waiter, stared at the already heaving table before our party of four, and said “but you heave two more dishes coming”. Shoveling food into our mouths, we barely breathed, in unison we said “We don’t care!”. He backed away from the table like a man who had seen something very, very alarming. There is something about India. I do love visiting –…
-
Home Grown Heroes
By now, three quarters of the free world know I have been growing tomatoes on my terrace. No big deal you say? Well, I am not known for my green thumb and also, I LIVE IN THE DESERT! So now, the tomato vines, tended with love during our short and sweet Doha winter, have started to bear fruit. What to do with this bounty? Today a friend passed by for coffee so I whipped up a quick Middle Eastern style bruschetta. I used one of my favorite cheeses, a labneh from Laiterie Jarjoura in Chtoura, Zahlé, Lebanon. It is a famous mountainside stop en route to Baalbeck and the Bekaa…
