Merovingian kindly gave me a round of Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire, a cheese I had only had once before, at Anthony's in Leeds. The more time goes on, the more I appreciate the charms of the great Northern cheeses and this Lancashire is a really a prize example of a cheese that manages to be both rich and subtle, creamy and chalky, and with a nice hint of sourness. I've used it a lot for cooking this week, but was trying to think of a way to make it the centrepiece of a meal and came up with the summery option of a Ploughman's, in part inspired by all those pictures of Branscombe beach which made me think of lunch in Devon pubs. It was a bit of a fussy Ploughman's as these things go - with pickled beetroot, apple, celery, tomato, tomato chutney, salted butter, bread, gherkins and, ahem, sun-dried tomatoes - but I'd like to think that such over-egging has its place in some Ploughmans. I was thinking in particular of the Hope and Anchor in Bristol which offers stellar salads and a huge range of choices of cheese in its version of the platter.
2 comments:
I cannot believe that La Croix du Roi has decimated 3/4 of a 2lb block of cheese in 4 days. Pleasant dreams.
I must confess that I was lucky enough to take part in this decimation. I didn't feel the Ploughman's was over-egged at all. The cheese was the highlight, definitely.
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