The Cheese Board

[Barbirollians]

It is (was) exactly the colour and texture of a pecorino, though all the bistrot cheeses, cured meats, wines and spirits are French so unlikely to have been pecorino. I saw some Ossau-Iraty in Tesco and dismissed it as some sort of industrial cheese I'd never heard of but I discover this is a gee-nu-yne French Basque AOP cheese. So next time I'm in Téco ...

Now time to have my rice pudding. I shall try adding some dried apricots, gently stewed in a white wine syrup. Btw what do schools do to rice pudding to make a delectable king of puddings so universally hated for life?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's crying with all her might and main,
And she won't eat her dinner - rice pudding again -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

Ossau Iraty is a splendid cheese especially with a red from the region like Irouleguy.

[hmvman]

I just do things when they seem to need doing and I think of them. Then I forget what I did.

That sounds like my style of cooking, ff - especially the forgetting bit

[french frank]

How do you make your rice pudding?

Like Escoffier. Sort of. (Well, not quite - I don't use egg because I don't eat eggs and he adds cream, kirsch, maraschino.) All right, like most mums make it, I expect, but I enjoy mine.

Buy bag of pudding rice from Téco.
Parboil a cupful or two in water - for 5 mins or so
Strain off the water and add milk - mine is vegan, so oat drink.
Add vanilla pod and simmer gently until the liquid has more or less been soaked up.
Turn out into an oval brown earthenware pot with a lid
Add some dried mixed fruit and a zest of lemon/orange, and possibly a bit more milk. Could add a bit of sugar/butter/cream, maraschino &c if wanted
Grate some nutmeg over the top
Put lid on and stick in the oven for 30 mins-ish, then look and see how it's doing: if it looks all right, not too stodgy, not too liquidy take it out.
Wait for chorus of derision

I think that's what I did - I just do things when they seem to need doing and I think of them. Then I forget what I did.

Escoffier calls his Pouding de riz Joséphine.

[Pulcinella]

It is (was) exactly the colour and texture of a pecorino, though all the bistrot cheeses, cured meats, wines and spirits are French so unlikely to have been pecorino. I saw some Ossau-Iraty in Tesco and dismissed it as some sort of industrial cheese I'd never heard of but I discover this is a gee-nu-yne French Basque AOP cheese. So next time I'm in Téco ...

Now time to have my rice pudding. I shall try adding some dried apricots, gently stewed in a white wine syrup. Btw what do schools do to rice pudding to make a delectable king of puddings so universally hated for life?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's crying with all her might and main,
And she won't eat her dinner - rice pudding again -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

How do you make your rice pudding?

[french frank]

The pale cheese looks like pecorino so may be a hard sheep milk number.

It is (was) exactly the colour and texture of a pecorino, though all the bistrot cheeses, cured meats, wines and spirits are French so unlikely to have been pecorino. I saw some Ossau-Iraty in Tesco and dismissed it as some sort of industrial cheese I'd never heard of but I discover this is a gee-nu-yne French Basque AOP cheese. So next time I'm in Téco ...

Now time to have my rice pudding. I shall try adding some dried apricots, gently stewed in a white wine syrup. Btw what do schools do to rice pudding to make a delectable king of puddings so universally hated for life?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's crying with all her might and main,
And she won't eat her dinner - rice pudding again -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

[HighlandDougie]

Pretty sure the unknown cheese is Tomme de Savoie. There are very small holes in it and a tiny scrap of dark rind.

https://www.tasteatlas.com/tomme-de-savoie

Not sure I can tell semi-soft from semi-hard, but I'd have said soft whereas Saint-Nectaire seems to be classed as semi-hard:
https://www.tasteatlas.com/saint-nectaire

The numerous vacheries in the arrière-pays niçois all make cheese which is, simply, known as ‘Tome’ or ‘Tomme’ - and which is a dead-ringer for FF’s spongy number. So whether it’s “de Savoie” or the alfresco stuff made after heating fresh and wholly unpasteurised milk in a copper over a wood fire up the road at Authion, I’m sure it’s a simple tomme/tome. The pale cheese looks like pecorino so may be a hard sheep milk number. And definitely ‘Fourme d’Ambert’.

[french frank]

Silly question, perhaps, but unless it's already closed down why not ask the bistrot?
Or would that spoil the fun?

I'm there before you! I shall enquire next week. The gang will be there next week, or some of it (le monsignor and his wife will be there, but la baronne prefers to cook chez elle in the evening) - we used to meet for (now discontinued) lunch). I never really did goat's cheese, but the Sainte-Maure de Touraine (if such it was) was very good indeed.

As to the Morbier: it was cut last Tuesday and has spent most of the time since in the fridge, so the taste may have deteriorated. I go solely by the visual evidence:

1) Nothing but a French cheese would have been countenanced
2) what other French cheese could it have been?

There was also the thin, light-coloured hard cheese: It was a very flat (barely 15mm thick) cheese. As per m. vinteuil's suggestion, probably also a goat's cheese.

I wondered whether to have dressed olives with, but decided in favour of watercress and a stick of c*l*r*y (to spare Mr A's sensibilities). I shall finish with home made rice pudding later on this evening - no rush!

[oddoneout]

The issue is inulin - in Jerusalem artichokes . It is an indigestible sugar . It does not affect some people at all - others suffer horrible wind and indigestion.

I have a dodgy gut anyway so wasn't surprised when the artichokes didn't suit, but I really didn't like the taste either so no problem. I'll stick with the globe sort.
In the course of looking up inulin(checking I had remembered correctly what it was) I found out that chicory root contains it as well, which might explain why a rather nice herbal tea I tried recently did not agree with me - the ingredients included chicory root. What I have yet to establish is whether chicons might also be a problem as I love them and can eat quite a quantity at a time.

[Pulcinella]

Silly question, perhaps, but unless it's already closed down why not ask the bistrot?
Or would that spoil the fun?

[vinteuil]

... and confirmation, after eating, that it was a morbier?

.

[french frank]

Pretty sure the unknown cheese is Tomme de Savoie. There are very small holes in it and a tiny scrap of dark rind.

https://www.tasteatlas.com/tomme-de-savoie

Not sure I can tell semi-soft from semi-hard, but I'd have said soft whereas Saint-Nectaire seems to be classed as semi-hard:

https://www.tasteatlas.com/saint-nectaire

[french frank]

As I mostly (as in always) eat alone at home, I may cautiously try vinteuil's idea first. I love trying out new things to eat with cheese. The 'Saint-Nectaire?' has been out of the fridge since breakfast time. I will sniff for pong before eating. Just red cabbage soup and cheese for lunch today .

I wish I could remember the difference between a soupe and a potage. I keep looking it up but the answer keeps escaping me. [Just looked again. Mine is a soupe - lots of bits of légumes in it.]

[Roger Webb]

I think I'm lucky too - artichoke soup one of my absolute favourites. I also like jerusalem artichokes cut in to bite-size pieces, tossed in hot oil and baked for 20 minutes until soft on the inside and a bit crunchy on the outside

.

Ah yes, I'll try the latter next time we harvest...ours are of a quite diminutive size, which is why we pickle them whole and eat them with cheese.

[vinteuil]

We have never suffered any ill effects from consuming them.

I think I'm lucky too - artichoke soup one of my absolute favourites. I also like jerusalem artichokes cut in to bite-size pieces, tossed in hot oil and baked for 20 minutes until soft on the inside and a bit crunchy on the outside

.

[french frank]

We have never suffered any ill effects from consuming them.

Nor did mine hosts, though their visitor mysteriously disappeared for the rest of the evening.