Whenever I ask foodies to name their top 10 favourite foods, goat's cheese is almost always included in the list. But after a relaxing weekend spent indulging in food and wine, I'm beginning to wonder if chefs are getting a bit carried away in their obsession with goat's cheese.
First we headed to Bellota Tapas bar in Auckland where they serve wonderful crumbed goat's cheese balls with runny honey and toasted almonds. The next day we toured the vineyards of Waiheke Island where, at Stonyridge, we ate stunning Puhoi goat's cheese on a Chinese spoon; at Cable Bay Vineyard it was goat's cheese beignets (fritters) with honey, almonds, tomato and chilli, and at Thymes Table restaurant in Surfdale the entree was a very tasty twice-cooked goat's cheese souffle.
Part of the problem is that my partner, having lived on a goat farm, has a loathing of goat's cheese. So I tried some reverse psychology by introducing her to something worse - a YouTube video on the making of Sardinian pecorino cheese called casu marzu. This cheese is aged for three months with fly larvae deliberately added to it to promote an advanced level of fermentation to break down cheese fats. The larvae appear as translucent 8mm worms, which are sometimes eaten with the soft sheep milk cheese.
That might be a little extreme for some tastes but there's no arguing with the fact that everybody loves some kind of cheese.
In England, Sainsbury's supermarkets have had to sell their Italian parmigiano reggiano - considered the world's best hard cheese - in tagged security cases to prevent it being pilfered. After 12 months every parmigiano reggiano is tested by a master grader whose only instruments are a hammer and his ear. By tapping the wheel at various points, he can identify undesirable cracks and voids within the wheel.
Parmigiano reggiano is great with pasta - try serving a wedge with a small hand-held grater at the table so the cheese is fresh, or try shaving it, rind removed, with a vegetable peeler.
And in Somerset, England, fantastic cheddar cheese is produced by traditional methods using raw milk, traditional animal rennet and cloth wrapping. Cheddar tends to have a sharp, pungent flavour, slightly earthy. Although its texture is firm, traditional farmhouse cheddar should be slightly crumbly, never soapy.
Blue cheese is thought to have been discovered by accident when caves used for maturing different cheese varieties were found to have different moulds, which spread to the cheeses. Italian gorgonzola is the world's oldest blue and makes an incredible silky blue cheese sauce to accompany a well-seasoned steak or potato gnocchi.
Keep it cheesy (+recipes)
Stuffed figs with blue cheese and orange makes a great entree. Photo / Ian Jones
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