It’s been a long year and frankly I have been caught a little off guard by the speed and ferocity of the approach of the festive season. We’re staying in Doha this year, and on the weekend I had a mild panic about who, what, when, where and how. I managed to find the tree in the back of the wardrobe, dust off the ornaments and tinsel and put the whole thing together with a minimum of curse words. Presents have been ordered online and are being delivered at breakneck speed. After that I needed a lie down and a Netflix Gilmore Girls marathon (but basically that threw up more questions than…
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All Wrapped Up – Camembert En Croute for Christmas
It seems I am developing an aptitude for creating “stunt cheese” or “extreme cheese challenges”. First there was the infamous “Turkey Cheese” for Thanksgiving and now folks, I present to you my latest creation… This is a wheel of Camembert wrapped in puff pastry and baked. I had planned to do this with Brie, as is the traditional way, but believe it or not I struggled to find a suitable wheel. I also had a scramble to find readymade puff pastry sheets big enough (who has time to make puff pastry on Christmas Day) but managed to cobble together a casing from some small squares, well placed egg wash and a lot…
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12 Cheeses of Christmas – Festive Goats Cheese
OK I know I am a couple of days late starting this venture but the spirit is there. I was doing a Saturday smash and grab at Monoprix and saw this little festive beauty. It’s a lovely and fresh round of creamy goat cheese (called a crottin) rolled in red peppercorns and topped of course with a festive (fake) holly sprig. It’s amazing how something as simple as peppercorns and a splash of red can make a humble hunk of cheese so Christmasy. Goat cheese is my go-to (see what I did there) cheese but even among my cheese loving friends it is divisive. Some people find the aroma and distinctive taste…