28 December 2007

Reminder

Note to self: Cheese should be served at room temperature.

I'm not much of a cheese eater, despite the fact that pretty much everyone else around me can be found digging wedges of stinky Epoisses or cutting hunks of Cotswold before and after the dinner hour. Me, I occasionally have a sprinkling of cheese as an accent in salad, but for some reason last week I found myself craving big hunks of fermented dairy products. Wheels of brie and camembert, carrying the odors of sweet lettuces from spring's milk, are just ripening to perfection around now. Which brings me to the reminder: cheese should be served at room temperature so it oozes perfectly across the plate. Not I-took-it-out-of-the-fridge-five-minutes-ago and not baked in one of those pastry cases. I usually set mine out an hour to half an hour before serving. We had this Camembert with thin slices of baguette and some leftover cranberry-orange chutney. Delicious.

4 comments:

Bri said...

Ooooo yum! Brie with cranberry and orange served with baguette. Sounds heavenly to me! Happy New Year, Mercedes. Wishing you and yours countless blessings in the coming year!

Cakespy said...

Served with cranberry-orange chutney? That sounds amazing!! Yum.

purplecook said...

That looks so good. Where do you get French cheese in the Middle East? I had a hard time finding it.

Mercedes said...

Bri- yes it was good,a fortuitous combination. Happy new year to you as well!

Cakespy-the tartness balances the creamy cheese, that's what's so lovely about it.

Purplecook- I'm in the US visiting family, and yes, it's nearly impossible to find European cheeses in the Middle East. Perhaps that's the reason for my craving, a year of deprivation!