If you are new around here you’ll know that i’ve had a history of really disliking cheese in general, in fact I used to not even be able to go near cheddar cheese or touch it, yet I think what started it was enjoying pizza. Once cheese was melted, even if cooled slightly, I could eat it. So over time i’ve gradually been exposed to different types of cheese and wish I had tried them sooner, here’s some recipes that I actually really enjoy!
Doritos Mozzarella Sticks
Slice the mozzarella first, make them as big or as small as you like, just make sure they are dried. Crush up your doritos, reserve say half a bag and whizz up in a food processor to make Doritos crumbs, and mix them with your rougher crushed Doritos.
Dredge a mozzarella stick in flour, add into the egg mix, drop into the Doritos and lift on more Doritos bits to coat fully. Return back to the beaten egg, then back to the Doritos to give a 2nd coat, you can actually do this a third time if you like to make sure it’s all covered, the more coverage, the more crunch too! Place on a wire rack, the coating will actually dry on there while you work on the others which gives you time to spot any gaps, in which case do dunk in the egg and coat again, it helps to have a little whizzed up Dorito dust to hand too just in case to cover gaps.
Fry in oil at 180c for 90-120 seconds, just to crisp up the outside, rest on kitchen towel, let stand for a moment and gobble up / cheese pull – your call! Enjoy!
Cream Cheese Bacon Jalapenos
Halve the jalapenos, and de-see them to create little boats for filling. Load it up with the cream cheese, repeat with all the pepper halves.
Lay out the bacon in strips, slightly overlapping on a board, not all the bacon at first, you may not need it all, place down a jalapeno, and bring the bacon over the top of it, wrapping it fully, try to make it so the bacon meets and makes a seam on the underside of the pepper (the opposite side to the cream cheese) and sit it on the seam itself to stop it moving.
Repeat with all the jalapeno halves, bake in an oven at 160fan/180C or equivalent for approx. 15 minutes or until the bacon is cooked til your liking and crispy, allow to cool briefly and gobble up, simple!
Halloumi Tray Bake
Pre-heat your oven to 180Fan/200C or equivalent. Coat the potatoes in a mixing bowl with the oil, sesame seeds, garlic pepper and peri peri seasoning. Mix well, scatter on a tray and bake on it’s own for 20 minutes.
Whilst it’s baking in the bowl you added the potatoes to, with the oil and seasoning traces still in it, add the halloumi, kale and tomatoes, stir well to coat. Once the potatoes have had 20 minutes dump onto the baking tray the tomato mix and push it all around evenly, lifting it carefully, return to the oven for a further 15 minutes to char it all up and shrink the kale slightly. Served nice warm or cold, sometimes a drizzle of honey is nice on top too when serving!
Goats cheese pasta
So simple this, it self sauces! Get your pasta into a large saucepan, push in the garlic cloves, spring onion, grana Padano, spinach and goats cheese, pour on top the vegetable stock. Plonk that on your hob and bring it up to a simmer on a steady heat, stirring often, once it hits a simmer, let it stay bubbling away for around 20 minutes to cook the pasta primarily, but you can push it a touch further if you like to reduce it down, it will thicken as it cools and don’t over simmer it too much or the pasta will go mushy! Garnish with more grated cheese on top and a season of salt and pepper. Super easy, super good and very flexible.
Brie Garlic Bread
This was delicious, to be honest I’m still not a huge fan of brie so for me to say that, it must be good! First up in a mixing bowl beat together the butter, garlic and parsley, until creamed and well merged, do this with a wooden spoon or spatula until randomised. Leave to one side.
Slice the rind off of your brie and discard, then chop up the brie lumps roughly, add it to a food processor with the 2 tbsp honey, whizzing it up in batches, scraping down if needed until smooth and spreadable – you’ve just whipped brie, apparently!
Take your ciabatta and spread the garlic mixture all over one or both halves if you wish (or make a mega sandwich) and bake in the oven at 160fan/180c or equivalent, until just going lightly golden. Once happy, dollop on the brie, spreading over the garlic bread ciabatta and return to the oven, baking for a further 5 minutes or until melted. Serve still warmed, drizzled with more honey if you like, absolutely delicious and goes very well with the soup recipe too!
Souper Cheese Soup
This could be as much a soup or just a dip and you can use beer, non-alcoholic drinks such as apple juice instead of stout, or all milk too… it’s very nice indeed, or Gouda if we can chuck a food pun in.
In a saucepan add the flour, butter, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper. Over a medium heat keep stirring as you melt the butter into the flour and other powders, keep going until it thickens, this will happen quickly, into a sort of paste, lower the heat for more control if you wish and don’t burn it. Pour in half the stout and half the milk, whisking it in the pan to break down any lumps over the heat, add in the onion and the broccoli, top up with the milk and other stout, keep warming and stirring gently, add in the stock, Worcestershire sauce and mustard and keep bring to a steady simmer, it should be fairly thin and not too thick now, you can tweak this but the cheese thickens things up too of course.
Simmer this for about 10 minutes to cook up the broccoli primarily. Check it’s cooked by removing a small piece of broccoli and tasting it, then if good to go, remove from the heat, adding in the cream and both cheeses plus a little more salt and pepper if you wish, stirring through using the residual heat to melt it the cheese in, don’t do this over the heat. Leave to stand and either add more cheese or stock to taste and alter the consistency to your liking! Serve with croutons or even halloumi croutons if you wish, absolutely gorgeous!