The main goal of Year of the Cheese will be to try at least 12 different cheeses over the course of the year, ideally around one a month. We want to document the cheeses and what we thought of them here, on our Year of the Cheese page!
Our other ideas are:
My mum did this awesome cover for me! The paint didn't like
adhering to the shiny surface of my diary cover so it was a
challenge to do ANY kind of art on it. She would say it was
terrible because she is an artist and does the most
beautiful water colours. I, however, don't care about
'quality'. I only care about CHEEESE!
- Mars
Here are the first couple of cheeses on the menu. These are
from a New Zealand based CHEESE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE (!?!?)
called
The Cheese Wheel. Un-brie-lievable! It's a bit too pricey for us to do year
round but what a way to start off Year of the Cheese with a
one off box! Stay tuned for details as we try them one by
one :0
- Mars and Crisp
Our first cheese! Very exciting. This one was a smoked brie from The Cheese Wheel. We had a bit of leftover budget brand brie from a picnic over the weekend, so we got to compare them side by side!
The smoked brie was a much richer, stronger flavour while the regular brie was mild and creamy. They were both delicious in different ways — the texture was similar (both nice and soft) but the flavours felt like two completely different cheeses. I had them with sesame crackers. Delicious! I would definitely eat smoked brie again.
It is easier for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle than for me to describe what cheese tastes like over the internet. But I'll try.
This is a unique brie. The smokey flavour is quite subtle, but makes it taste very different to normal brie. Where regular brie tastes fresh, this brie tastes deep. (See how hard it is to describe?) The smokey flavour is like the dark cheese you can pick at Subway.
Basically it's like smoked cheddar but smoother and creamier. Who'da thunk'it?!
This cheese was fine. I expect to like most other cheeses we try this year more than this one. But it's still nice. I might prefer the cheap store-bought brie though, to be honest!
Rating: 2/5 mice eating cheese
This Valentine's day we went to a halloumi and ricotta making workshop, because what could be more romantic than CHEESE!
There were quite a few steps, but it was actually pretty easy! Apparently halloumi is a particularly forgiving cheese. The ricotta was made from the leftover whey (a byproduct) of the halloumi, so that was a good way to make the most of our ingredients. We came home with six slabs of halloumi and a bag of loose ricotta 🤣
We haven't tasted the ricotta yet, but we fried up some halloumi once we got home (and snuck a bit of the raw stuff before we left the workshop). It was salty and squeaky and delicious. We're definitely going to try and impress our friends with our halloumi making skills. The instructor said it keeps for quite a while if you store it properly, so it could make quite a good gift too!
All in all, a fun and interesting skill to gain. Glad we did it!
The halloumi is very nice and salty. It tastes basically exactly the same as the store bought stuff with a hint more love!
I love halloumi generally so I'm very happy with this.
A benefit of making it yourself is you can add your own flavourings. Chilli, herbs, whatever! Could be interesting to experiment with unique flavours sometime.
Rating: 4/5 squeaky cheeses
Yesterday we tried the scamorza! This wasn't a cheese we'd ever heard of before, so we gave it a little google and discovered you could cook it and have it in a sandwich, so we gave that a go!
Crisp here — I cooked the scamorza. I realised too late that I had put too much oil in the pan (I like to put in a lot with halloumi, which is the only other cheese I fry). It caused the scamorza to melt and spread out more than I wanted. But hey, as long as it tastes good!
First we tried it raw. It was springy and mild, a little smokey. Nice! But not something I would think to have often over other cheeses. But once we cooked it it became salty and savory, a delicious sandwich filling! Like fried halloumi. The sandwhiches were delicious. We had chiabata rolls, pesto, sliced tomato, prosciutto, and the fried scamorza. Plus a little leftover dukkah sprinkled on top. Yum!
All in all, very nice! No clue if they sell it in the supermarket, I'll have to keep an eye out next time I'm there, but I'd definitely eat it again.
The raw scamorza was nice; it tasted a bit like gouda. A little smokey, too.
The fried scamorza was very nice. I fried it a bit too long I think, but I wasn't used to frying this type of cheese so cut me some slack. It was salty and chewy, more chewy than halloumi.
Overall a very nice cheese that I'd like to have again and try preparing it other ways.
Review: 4/5 oily cheese pancakes
We tried our homemade ricotta!
First we had a bite of it by itself. Like most ricotta I've tasted it didn't have much flavour, just a faint grainy cheesyness. But then we made a whipped ricotta bruschetta with it and oh man! It was delicious. A little salt and olive oil added so much flavour to the ricotta and the creamyness paired so well with the tomato and crunchy bread. Delicious! Would definitely make it again (both the cheese and the bruschetta!)
The raw ricotta had very little flavour. It's definitely something that's meant to be added to other things. I wouldn't recommend eating it raw.
For the spread, we mixed it with olive oil and salt. That made it taste much better (is it technically the ricotta that tasted better, or just the olive oil and salt tasting nice?).
The final recipe was delicious. The ricotta spread helped balance out the strong flavours of the bruschetta topping. Would have again.
Review: 4/5 smooth cheese spreads
My birthday has just passed and I received two delightful
cheese related gifts! A cheese book and a cheese candle. May
these help us on our cheese journey 🧀
- Mars
Yesterday we tried some gruyère and made croque monsieur toasted sammies with brioche from our breadmaker (which we also hadn't had before).
We had two different kinds of gruyère, although! Upon consulting my cheese book, I discovered that, like Parmigiano Reggiano, gruyère, or Le Gruyère, can only be made in Switzerland. As ours was made in New Zealand, it was not 'true' gruyere. So perhaps we will have to keep an eye out for the real deal.
Anyway, onto the cheese!
As always, the difficulty of actually describing flavour arises. The first cheese, the paler one, was mild, and had an interesting flavour I struggle to put into words. It was nice, but I probably wouldn't want to eat it by itself on a cheese board. It would get to be a bit much. I think it would do well in a picnic sandwhich where it is surrounded by other flavours. It is distinct enough to stand out, but would not get overwhelming.
The second darker cheese I liked more. It had a stronger flavour and something about it was more appealing. That one I think I would eat on a cheese platter.
We had both of them in a croque monsieur each with a side salad to cut through all the intense cheesiness. It was nice, both were good melted for the sandwhich, and I didn't notice such a distinct flavour difference in that form.
The croque monsieurs themselves were nice enough, but didn't blow me away like the bruschetta did. I probably wouldn't make them again over a different toasted sandwich, but I'd definitely be up for ordering them in a cafe if I saw one.
Gruyère wasn't amazing. It didn't have a super distinctive flavour profile like some of the other cheeses.
The Talbot Forest Cheese Co. gruyère was very mild. It's taste didn't kick in for a few seconds when I first put it in my mouth. The flavour was pleasant, but again, not very unique.
Review: 2/5 delayed-release flavours
The Barrys Bay gruyère was stronger, but still not strong. Looks like it won some cheese awards, but it won't be winning any awards from me.
Review: 3/5 shrugs
The croque monsieurs were nice. I liked them. But yeah, didn't blow me away. I'd rather have simple cheese-on-toast. I wonder if a cafe prepared one would be better. I'll keep my eye out for one.
(Yes, you read "dusted with ash" correctly. We are as curious as you are.)
This weekend was all about Feta!
We had one from Crisp's birthday gift box expiring soon, so we decided to compare it with the bog standard one we normally get, plus a goat cheese one we've been meaning to try.
This one was mostly just salty and tangy. It was nice! But there wasn't a lot else going on.
Firm and salty. Nice, but a bit too tangy by itself. I thought I'd like it more than I actually did, probably because normally it's in food and the taste is diluted to managable levels.
This one definitely tasted different. It had a more complex flavour, and was probably a bit more creamy. I think this one was my favourite.
Definitely the nicest. Smooth and creamy feta. Yum. Still tangy but not to the point where it was unpleasant.
This one was a different colour, and much firmer when I was cutting it. It was also more crumbly in your mouth, whereas the others kind of melted. It also had a more complex flavour, and definitely felt like there was something different going on underneath. Maybe the aftertaste was a bit different? I'm not sure, but the cow ones had a point of similarity that this one didn't. It was also yummy!
Strong, with a distinct musty taste where you could tell it came from a goat. Tasted almost unclean? I didn't like that taste. Probably would be fine in food but I'm not a fan of it by itself.
Now that we've tried them all, we have three blocks of feta to use up! So what to do with them… See our next couple posts for what we try!
I used a super simple recipe to make whipped feta. At first it was so crumbly in the blender I was worried it wouldn't work, but it was completely fine by the end! We used the Hawke's Bay feta for this one. The Greek yoghurt made it even more tangy! (We tasted a little bit before we put it in other things). It was also creamy, light and fluffy.
This was an attempt to recreate something I (Mars) had eaten at a high tea with a friend. I had no recipe so it was completely made up. I think it went pretty well, all things considered! It was whipped feta with finely chopped roast capsicum (from a jar) and finely chopped kalamata olives wrapped in long thin slices of cucumber! (Yay for our new grater that has the slicer on it!)
They were delicious! Tangy and salty with the much needed fresheness of the cucumber to balance it out. They were quite hard to eat though! I'd probably make them smaller in future so it would be easier to eat it in one bite – maybe I'd cut the cucumber sliced in half long ways to make them shorter. I'd also make the filling go right up to the top.
These weren't quite my thing. They were good, but the taste isn't my favourite. Maybe because the feta was too strong?
We made these partially to use up the whipped feta (spread on the buns) and partially because I'd been keen to try those vegetarian impossible burgers.
I really liked it all! The impossible burgers were hearty and savoury — exactly what I want in a burger. Next time I think I'll put a bit more of the whipped feta on though. I didn't want to overpower things but actually couldn't taste it enough.
Burger T A S T Y
The burgers were delicious, but I wouldn't say the whipped
feta was a necessary addition. The roulade was fun and I
might make it at any high teas I do in the future (with the
aforementioned alterations, of course). Now to the next
block!
- Mars
With the next block, we made a spicy dip called tirokafteri.
It was delicious! A little spicy with the delicious salty tang of feta, and I could taste occasional hints of the capsicum. Super yum, especially with warm home made pita breads. It was easy to make too, I'll definitely bring out this dip again when people come over.
This dip was so good. Very very moreish. Cool colour, too.
I've been wanting to make souvlaki (well... Souvlaki marscrisp style. We don't really have a grill so we're bastardising it a wee bit... Look away Greek foodies!) for a while, and this could help use up our dip and put to use our new pita making skills!
It was absolutely delicious. The tirokafteri added a delicious tangy spice and went very well with the tzatziki we made. Super yum. Would definitely make again. Very messy to eat but worth it!
This was very tasty. Very tricky to eat, though. MESSY. But sometimes you have to just roll your sleeves up and get dirty. And I would do that again for these souvlakis.
We had one more block of feta left over, so we decided to make a version of that viral baked feta pasta from a few years ago.
In a word: comforting. This is the perfect comfort pasta. Delicious, and, given its ease, something I'll be coming back to.
It was super easy to make, and it was tasty! Nothing that blows your mind but it was yummy, and I agree with Crisp that it is a comforting sort of dish. I would make it again.
Definitely worth it for the solid taste and low effort.
Today we went to a cheese shop in Featherston called C'est Cheese. We weren't just recommended their cheese, but also their cheese toasties and blue cheese scones! We got two cheese toasties to share and a blue cheese scone to take away.
The cheese toasties were delicious, perfectly crunchy bread and several different types of cheese inside. Would definitely recommend if you're driving through.
The toasties were very nice. I liked the pure cheese one more than the cheese plus bacon plus whatever else was on there.
…mmm… cheese…
We decided to get 3 different cheeses to try! Stay tuned for updates and we eat them 😋
Today we tried the blue cheese scone from c'est cheese! It was a day old so obviously won't be as perfect as if we'd eaten it immediately but here goes!
I thought it was delicious. A little drier than it would have been fresh, but nothing that lashings of butter couldn't fix! It was mild but I could definitely taste hints of the blue cheese. Very yum, I would definitely eat it again.
I mean, it was a cheese scone, so it was good. Nothing spectacular, but pretty good. It wasn't very blue-cheesy though. I only got a small taste of the blue.
We also tried our first cheese from C'est Cheese! The pecorino. We tried it on a little taster of pasta puttanesca I was trying out for my packed lunches (with the modification of no capers, because I don't like 'em, and kalamata olives because that's what we had)
Honestly I was a little underwhelmed by this one. It was like the poor man's Parmesan. The flavour was too mild to really stand out, and even when we ate a piece on its own it didn't have much going for it. I probably wouldn't buy this one again but I'm glad I tried it!
Pecorino is weird. It's made from sheep's milk, and like goat's cheese, it has its own twang.
I probably won't be buying it again. It has a particular flavour and it's going for it. If you like it then that's amazing, but it's not for me. I'd rather have parmesan.
Today we tried the blue cheese! It was called blue monkey.
It was creamy and sharp, quite a strong flavour. I liked the creamyness, and I could handle a little bit of the sharpness, but there was an aftertaste i wasn't so fond of. I didn't hate it and I can definitely see why someone would like it, but I think this one in particular was a bit much for my tastes. I would be open to trying other blues, though!
At my mum's recommendation I then tried the blue cheese again but paired it with something sweet. We had this fig paste, compote, and chutney from the cheese chop, so I tried it with the compote. I actually did think it became more palatable! They balanced each other out. I don't know that I would enjoy either of them by themselves but together they were nice!
This was delicious. I'm a big blue cheese fan. One of the best meals I've had was a blue cheese pasta.
While this blue cheese is incredibly veiny, it was medium-to-strong strength. Not super strong.
I ended up eating a lot of this with crackers. Much more than Mars. Definitely recommend!
We then made the blue cheese into a super simple pasta sauce and oh my goodness! So incredibly delicious. We had it with fresh tortellini. I would definitely make that again.