What was the highlight of your Easy Cheesey Chèvre masterclass experience?
So many highlights it's difficult to choose - meeting lots of lovely MNetters, Charlie the cheese man's fascinating and delicious cheese tasting, doing the cook-alongs with Sophie, the lunch and lovely wine... And then even once it had finished it carried on as there was yet more cheese and wine to take home! Think that covers just about everything :o Nicest cheese of the day for me was the one with the straw in, nicest dish of the day was Charlie the starter with the melted crottin and caramelised walnuts.
Did you find the cheese tasting seminar provided you with some interesting facts, tips and advice on French goat's cheese? If so please share!
Lots! Everything from the origins of goat's cheese (local peasant food so tended to be local and young), the ease with which the flavour of the cheese can be affected by the presence of billy goats (that 'goaty' over-smell often found on goat's cheese but not on the ones we tried) or the food the nanny goat eats (eg the garlic - I never did find out if the garlic scented ones that came about when the goat ate wild garlic were sold as garlic delicacies or thrown away as polluted) and that there was such a wide variety of goat's cheeses just from the Loire region (the area the tasting concentrated on).
Storage of the cheese was useful - upside down tupperware box or clingfilm to keep it in the fridge and to keep the air out. I now find myself coveting my mother's ugly but perfect method of storing cheese in her fridge - her genuine 80s tupperware cheese board with cover . Or simply wrapped in greaseproof paper by an experienced cheese merchant on a slate shelf in a drafty French Chateau larder if you don't have a fridge.
And of course the fact that crottin is a french word for pooh. Predictably that's pretty much the only one that I can remember which cheese matches which name so as far as marketing goes - it's worked, genius! I also liked the fact that it aged from 11 days to 6 months old, developing its flavour and texture as it went (from spreadable to grate-able and everything inbetween) and that it was delicious throughout.
Plus rather than repeating them here, there are all the new facts below too...
I thought Charlie presented the session very well - despite packing loads into the time we were never overwhelmed by the cheese or the facts that both kept coming and coming. Its structure had been well thought out and was informative as well as entertaining.
Was there anything that surprised you about French goat's cheese that you didn't know before?
- You can eat the ash 'rind' of the ash covered goat's cheeses.
- The health benefits - particularly the fact it is much lower in cholesterol and fat than cheddar type cow's milk cheeses (really useful to know for me as dh loves cheese but is very good about steering clear because of the fat and cholesterol content, which he monitors very carefully in his diet. I'm going to try to introduce him to goat's cheese to see if he can still get his cheese 'hit' without having to worry anywhere near so much about it being unhealthy.
- That it is easier to digest in general than cow's milk cheeses, and even if you are lactose intolerant you are likely to be able to tolerate it.
- That it is a good source of all sorts of vitamins and minerals.
- That it is perfectly possible to get goat's cheese without the hint of goat flavour in it.
- It's possible to do a whole varied cheeseboard containing just goat's cheese.
- Goat's cheese goes very well with a nice white wine.
- That so much of it goes so well with fruit or in cooking as opposed to sitting on a cheese board or being grilled and plonked on top of a salad.
*After tasting the French goat's cheeses did you have a particular favourite? Here's the list of cheeses you would have seen:
French goat's cheese log - French goat's cheese mini log - Spreadable fresh French goat's cheese - French goat's cheese camembert - Selles-sur-Cher
- Crottin de Chavignol - Sainte-Maure de Touraine - Valençay - Banon - Rocamadour - Tomme de chèvre*
I enjoyed nearly all the cheeses, although my absolute favourites were the ash-covered log with the straw going through it (sorry, can't remember which was which now!) and the leaf-covered one.
I also thought the spreadable goat's cheese would be very useful on a day to day basis when cooking and and I think the dc would enjoy it too (unfortunately the cheese box I took with me didn't make it home for them to try after an unexpected visit to a friend where it provided a very tasty supper!). Will definitely add it to my list of basics to keep in the fridge.
I also enjoyed the crottin (especially warmed up on our starter) - the fact it lasts for 6 months and is supposed to evolve in texture and flavour over that time is an added bonus as is the hairy blue fit that the H&S folks would probably have if they thought for a moment it was possible to have a cheese without a use by date on it of more than a day or two after being opened.
In fact, the only cheese I wasn't that keen on was the hard one - and the standard 'goat's cheese roll' when it was raw - much better when cooked. I also wasn't that keen on the Goat's Camembert - prefer the real thing sorry (think it was to do with the texture and thinner rind on the goat version).
Were you surprised by any of the flavours of the French goat's cheeses? If so, how?
- Yes - how lovely and fresh it can be, and the wide variety of flavours and textures within cheeses that looked like they were pretty similar.
- That it can develop a much more complex flavour and texture as it ages (particularly the crottin and the one wrapped in leaves).
- That the ash rind that looks rather unpleasant was nice to eat.
- The lack of goaty overtones was also nice (sorry, I'm beginning to repeat myself here).
Have you been encouraged to experiment more with French goat's cheese as an ingredient following the masterclass?
Yes - next steps planned are to try it in lasagne as a layer replacing the cheese sauce, on a pizza to replace the tomato sauce (probably with something along the lines of parma ham, chives, spring onions, roasted plum cherry tomatoes and red peppers or melon - based on something very yummy I tried in France this summer), in a lentil and roasted veg salad and replacing/in addition to Stilton in my annual Boxing Day soup.
Were you previously aware of the nutritional benefits of French goat's cheese?
I knew that goat's milk was more easily digested than cow's milk for people that were gluten intolerant - not sure I'd ever extrapolated that to goats cheeses, but that could just be because I don't know many gluten intolerant people, let alone cook for them.
I wasn't really aware that it was more easily digestible by everybody when compared to cow's milk cheeses but it's now something I'll bear in mind, especially if having cheese off a cheese board after a big meal or if eating cheese before going to bed!
I didn't know that it always had lower fat and lower cholesterol levels that cow's milk cheeses or that it provided lots of minerals and vitamins.
Were you aware of the variety of French goat's cheese available here in the UK?
Not really - I've subsequently looked in the supermarkets I've been into - Sainsburys had a few - but more English goat's cheeses which surprised me. There was very little in Morrisons other than the very basic standard goat's cheese with no mention of country of origin that I remember. Waitrose was the best of the lot - probably no surprise!
Did you enjoy Sophie's French goat's cheese recipes? Do you plan to recreate them at home?
I did enjoy them - absolute favourite was the crottin and caramelised walnut salad - I adore cheese like this much more than with crackers on a cheese board so will definitely be trying this.
I was pleasantly surprised by the fishcakes as I'm not really a fish lover - I tend to stick to salmon (under sufferance to try to be healthy) and would never usually eat any other fish. If I were to make them again, I'd probably just stick to salmon. I'd also make them a bit smaller and thinner - I think the portions we had were pretty generous so we made huge fishcakes which meant the goats cheese didn't really do much melting or oozing when cut in to. The salad went very well with it - and I forgot to find out what she dressed it with as the whole combination really worked well.
The cheesecake was very nice - I have several good cheesecake recipes so this will join my standard set I think.
The muffins were quite nice but were welded to their paper cases which spoilt the experience somewhat. However I think it was the muffin recipe that let it down rather than the addition of the cheese and olives - I'd definitely try adding goats cheese and olives to my standard savoury muffin recipe, albeit with thyme rather than rosemary but that's a personal preference.
I thought Sophie did a great job of showing us how to cook the recipes (and dealing with all the boring bits like weighing ingredients out, cooking and washing up!) and it was useful to have the recipe booklets to try her recipes at home and get some more ideas.
Would you recommend French goat's cheese to a friend or family member?
Absolutely. Particularly would mention the health benefits as that is becoming more and more important these days!
Did you enjoy the Caves de Tourangelles Touraine Sauvignon Blanc wine? Do you think you would buy this? (RRP around £8.50)
Very much so. Thought it went exceptionally well with the food we had and the cheeses - a very nice drinking wine. I'm just trying to decide whether to share it with dh and polish the lot off between the two of us or to be nice and keep it for Christmas evening when I'll have my mum and aunt staying and we would typically have an informal supper of cheese, smoked salmon and assorted pick bits that this would complement beautifully...
I remember that they said it was available through Nicolas wine shops but there aren't any of those locally - where else would I be likely to find it?
Plus any other information you'd like to share with MN.
Just wanted to say a massive thank you to MN for inviting me to such a great event - I thought the whole thing went brilliantly and was very well organised - such a lot was packed into a relatively short amount of time and a huge amount of goats cheese was eaten in that short time! Sometimes going to events where nobody knows each other can be a bit intimidating but it was all very friendly and we were soon put at ease - by everybody involved, both from the organisational and presentation teams and by all the other participants. And thank you too for a great goody bag - the wine, cheeses, muffins, cheesecake and bits were all much appreciated!
Only bits that stuck out as slightly out of kilter with the rest of the day - Charlie the cheeseman had obviously been told that everybody was a blogger and didn't really know what MNet was about or that most of us were regular users of the site rather than active bloggers - I don't think it would have changed much if he had known but it made it a bit strange at the start when he kept talking about blogging and I started wondering if I was in the right place. Also I hadn't realised until they got up to go that Helen and Geraldine were actually MNHelen and MNGeraldine so missed an opportunity to find out more about what MN Towers is like!
Overall, it was lots of fun; the most information packed, hugely entertaining, deliciously-cheese-filled day out ever!