Roquefort, Apples and Walnuts
Cheese and Biscuits with a Difference
I like serving alternative cheese courses, there is much you can do with cheese given its huge variety of flavours and styles and you shouldn’t always stop at a few biscuits and grapes.
Roquefort is a great cheese to use as a starter, cook with or simply eat with some good bread. The cheese is one of France’s finest, seemingly as old as the limestone caves of Les Causses in which it is ripened and has a creamy white, soft texture which melts perfectly into sauces and dressings.
A good roquefort will have deep green marbling running throughout the whole of the cheese, if it is too white with little marbling then it will be an inferior cheese so steer clear. Roquefort makes a great dessert cheese and with this in mind I have paired it with a classic cheese and biscuits garnish; apples and walnuts. Now there’s nothing wrong with a piece of great cheese and the crunch of a fresh, delicious apple but you can do that yourself, you don’t need to sit in a restaurant to do it.
With that in mind I serve roquefort as a panna cotta, a set custard if you will. A seasoned cream is infused with crumbled roquefort, white pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Vegetarian gelatine called agar agar is added to help it set before being passed through a fine sieve and left to set in molds. The apples are quatered, peeled and lightly cooked in white wine, sugar, bay leaf and five spice, some are cooked for longer and pureed to make an interesting compote. Walnuts are roasted and ground to a powder and ‘dusted’ on the plate.
A simple sauce made from roquefort melted into a little warm water and folded into a well seasoned mayonnaise is spooned onto the plate along with a quennelle of the apple puree.
The panna cotta is removed from the mold and placed in the centre of the plate with pieces of apple and walnut placed around. The dish is finished with a simple ’salad’ of celery leaf, pea shoots and an oven dried apple crisp.
The whole purpose behind the dish is to serve the ingredients in an unexpected textural way whilst retaining the fresh vibrant flavours of each ingredient. All that is needed is some crusty bread and a glass of Sauternes…
Miles,
.
This looks delicious and I can’t help wondering, how many guests would appreciate the work involved.
On a wider but very topical note there is a big article in today’s Times about the 300% tax being levid on Roquefort cheese by the Americans. It appears that there is a sort of tit for tat situation going on. France has a ban on US hormone-fed beef which it says will remain for health reasons. America has raised the tax on Roquefort from 100% to 300%.. The Times further stated that France is to protest to the World Trade Organisation over the anti-cheese measure and a French MP from the area of Roquefort called for a super-tax against Coca-Cola!
All sorts of comical quotes spring to mind, Miles but I will leave these to you
Elsie
January 22, 2009 @ 11:10 am
Miles,
Now I have to agree with Elsie, that’s a fine looking cheese course and very inventive.
Cid
January 22, 2009 @ 6:08 pm
Elsie,
Thanks for that-it was tomorrow’s post.
Miles
January 22, 2009 @ 6:53 pm
Cid,
Thankyou, thought it would be up your street
Miles
January 22, 2009 @ 7:13 pm
Darn Americans! If Obama would name me Food Czar I’d trade the French all our Coke for their cheese. And I’d throw in all Pepsi products, too.
Speaking of cheese, I don’t eat dairy products, but am doing some testing on raw cheese from a local farm. I’m eating a little bit each day. So far, so good. The cows are 100% grass fed, lovingly cared for and produce the most divine raw cheese. Well, I guess they produce the most divine raw milk, which is then made into raw cheese. I did a cheesy post too, Miles. We must be on the same wavelength.
By the way, while I’m over here visiting, I’d like to make a request. Or maybe a suggestion. Would you be interested in doing a post of my choosing if I did one of your choosing? Something you might be interested in from this side of the pond? There is something I’d love to see in a blog post and you’re the perfect guy to do it. It’s about cooking and would be very easy for you to do — I’m sure of that.
What do you think, Miles?
Melissa
P.S. Your dessert looks wonderful.
January 22, 2009 @ 9:29 pm
Melissa,
Go for it
Miles
January 22, 2009 @ 9:46 pm
Even before I could walk I was hooked on cheese! An x-ray once revealed that 75% of my body contained cheese, and by using a very intricate set of algorithms and superadvanced calculus I have conclusively determined that yes, the moon IS made out of cheese! Having said that, the dessert looks scrumptious, Miles
And 300% is insanity of the worst variety. It’s just not cricket.
January 23, 2009 @ 12:28 pm
Okay, here’s the deal, Miles. Although I love to cook and have been at it for more years than I care to admit, I have no clue how to properly chop an onion.
It’s just a vegetable, why is this so hard? The fact that they come naturally pre-cut in a circular direction totally throws me off. No matter how I begin (I’ve tried a zillion different tactics), I end up suspending what little culinary grace I might have started with, and I simply whack away with my Wusthof professional chef’s knife until the poor thing has been demolished.
I know, I know — I probably shouldn’t be allowed to use professional-grade sharp, pointy things.
There — I’ve said it. I can’t chop an onion. Actually, I take that back, I can chop it, but it’s not pretty and I’m probably in danger of hurting myself.
So — what is the super-secret chef trick? Is there anyway you can do an instructional post on the correct way to chop an onion? I want to dazzle my guests. And not hurt anyone in the process.
Melissa
P.S. I’ll reciprocate with a post about something you’re interested in. A Rocky Mountain pictorial scenery tour, maybe? You name it.
January 23, 2009 @ 8:20 pm
Xenny,
That’s a lot of cheese-do you have to shelter from the African sun? You could be a human fondue
Miles
January 23, 2009 @ 10:04 pm
Melissa,
Give me a couple of days and I’ll email it over to you.
Just off to practice
Miles
January 23, 2009 @ 10:05 pm
Miles, you could post it on your blog if you think it’s worthy. Or is it simply a silly request? Does everyone else know how to chop onions in an efficient way? Is it just me? (Oh, don’t tell me.)
I seriously don’t want you to go to any trouble on this. It was just a thought as I was fumbling away with my onion while making chard and chicken soup. Suddenly I thought, Miles needs to do a post on this.
:-)
January 23, 2009 @ 11:24 pm
Melissa,
Sorry-I misunderstood the idea. Of course I shall do it, my brother tells me I should do things like this which I probably take for granted. If you don’t mind I’ll wait a while for my request from you-America is a big country-there are more choices to go at
Miles
January 23, 2009 @ 11:51 pm
Melissa,
I can’t chop an onion either….. or anything else come to think of it. Must be something to do with my poor quality knives and lack of practice made worse by my latest purchase of an upmarket slicing gadget!
Cid
January 24, 2009 @ 1:56 am
I’m with Cid and Melissa on this one, my fingers turn into jelly whenever I need to chop an onion. I’d also like to know which type of knife would be the ideal weapon of choice.
January 24, 2009 @ 7:11 am
Xenny,
Do you think Melissa would fall for a practical demonstration on ironing my laundry mountain-she likes mountains
Miles
January 24, 2009 @ 9:18 am
Miles et all,
.
Glad that Melissa raised this one. I can add floods of tears to my onion chopping
I did hear the other week though that one should not cut right through the onion and just stop short. I tried it but when my tears took over it all became blurred and I wacked it!
Elsie
January 24, 2009 @ 9:38 am
Oh, thank you, thank you Cid, Xenny, and Elsie! And of course, you too, Miles.
I was starting to regret ever bringing this up, thinking I was the only one who couldn’t seem to cut a small round object with any grace. Even from this distance, I could almost see Miles rolling his eyes and thinking, “Another nutbar American.”
I didn’t mention the tears part, as I thought I had already whined enough. But speaking of that, when I get my onions directly from the farm, they don’t make me cry. When I buy store bought onions, they usually do. Does that have anything to do with fresh vs. not-so-fresh?
And Miles, so sorry about the laundry thing, but I don’t know how to iron either. Seriously, I don’t iron. No need to iron fleece or flannel.
:-)
Melissa
January 24, 2009 @ 12:03 pm
Melissa,
I can iron, I just hate doing it
Miles
January 24, 2009 @ 6:05 pm