Cheeses of England #4: Ash-coated goat cheese

Random photo: recycling is run!



I know, we haven't posted a new cheese since August (!), but don't think for a minute that we've been depriving ourselves of cheese since the last post. We've been enjoying lots of unpasturized cheddar, more blue vein cheddar, some more Romanian cow's cheese, we just haven't written about any of those.

But today I want to share with you our new favorite, Nut Knowle Farm's award-winning ash-coated aged goat cheese. It's super creamy with the bite of an aged cheese and the smokiness of, well, ash. We enjoy it spread on crusty breads (like the walnut levain featured here), crumbled into soups or stews, and in salads (well, I do, anyway). If you can find something similar near where you live, I'd definitely give it a try!

Cheeses of England #3: Fresh Iambor

Disclaimer: this is not a typical English cheese. It is a buffalo cheese, inspired by traditional Romanian cheese-makers, but it is made in Somerset and sold at our farmers market, so it counts as an English cheese. The maker is Alham Wood Organics, and they make a range of buffalo and cows cheeses and yogurt, both pasturized and "raw". This is one of the pasturized fresh cheeses, or Iambors. Danny describes it as "solid ricotta", but I think it has a much more mature and slightly saltier taste. Maybe a cross between ricotta and feta. It was really delicious on the olive bread we got from one of the stalls at the farmers market, the name of which we now cannot remember. The bread was delicious, if a little expensive, but it was sold to us by a French man, and when a French man offers you freshly baked bread, you take it.

Alham Wood also makes the cheese-tasking yogurt (or yoghurt, if you prefer). Next time I'm going to go crazy and try the buffalo yoghurt!

Cheeses of England #1: Blue Vein Cheddar

Cheese: Blue Vein Cheddar
Manufacturer: Green's of Glastonbury

Sampled and purchased at the Parliament Hill Farmers' Market on 17 July.  You can't see the blue veins in this photo, but they're there.  I can't find any mention of the blue vein variety on the Green's of Glastonbury website, and this was sold at the market as discounted "ugly cheese," so it may very well be that the vein-ing is unintentional but not wholly undesirable.  It imparts a tanginess that I don't typically associate with cheddar.

In the background are slices from a multi-grain loaf baked by the Flour Station.