An Evening of Cheese

This post is rather overdue but a combination of two of my favourite things in the world, cheese and markets, has to be written about. Every year Borough Market plays host to an Evening of Cheese about two weeks before Christmas and it is the perfect combination of two of my favourite things.
Organised by the team at KaseSwiss, the event brings together all the cheese-sellers from Borough Market for one night only. A cheese extravaganza! A couple of weeks ago, lovely Ginger came down from Oxford for a whirlwind trip to stock up on some cheesey goodies, as well as a chance to catch up of course.
Not only is there plenty of cheese available, you can also get your crackers, quince paste (dahling). This year, there was also a selection of craft beer available and some nice Borough Market branded aprons and the like. It's a festive evening that's well worth keeping in mind to get all your Christmas cheeses.
I bought:

• Tomme Fleurette from KaseSwiss - one of my all time fave soft cheeses. Very young, unpasteurised and runny with a beautifully soft and thin rind. Also a great candidate to fry in breadcrumbs but this can only be done when it's really fresh. T and I tried it once when it was a bit too far gone and we ended up with a pan of hot cheesey oil that stank to high heaven. It was not good!
• Jura from KaseSwiss - a beautiful mountain cheese that's made really high up and has a great fruity and smokey character and a nice smoothness to it. It's great perhaps if you're a fan of Gruyere but want to try out something new. This article has a great description of it.
• Beaufort from Mons Cheesemongers. A lovely strong hard cheese that has a fabulous texture and a really long flavour.

A pretty good haul I feel. Of course you can visit both of these cheesemongers and many more at Borough Market and Maltby Street Market.

Beautiful cheeses as KaseSwiss

Cheese Fondue, YES!

Now that the nights have drawn in and got colder, the time for decadent, warming foods has definitely arrived, as I have proved over the past week with some epic eating! Salads only next week. If last Friday was steak night, this Friday was fondue Friday.
Cheese fondue is back, if I say so it must be true. A pot of warm melted cheese and stuff to dip in, what's not to like? Having worked for a cheese company for the best part of three years, I can be a be a bit of a geek about the subject of cheese but what I'll share with you is the recipe that I recommend as well as a few hints on where you can buy the best cheeses in London for your perfect fondue.
Fondue recipes can differ depending on region but also personal taste, there's no hard and fast rule but the cheese should melt well and be tasty.
My favourite mix is by far the Swiss "moitié-moitié" which means half and half - half Gruyère, half Vacherin Fribourgeois.
Before you get started, get some dippers ready, you can dip whatever you like, but chunks of good crusty bread, new potatoes, brocoli and cauliflower all work well. Raw carrots are also good and I tend to do a salad of rocket with a hefty vinegar dressing to cut through all that dairy. Some people like to have charcuterie as well, just go with what you fancy. Keep it simple or mix it up. One of my favourite things is to fry some courgette and red onion until just cooked and spoon some cheese over the top. Also, pickles! You've got to have the pickles. Pickled cucumbers and onions are best.


For the fondue:
Allow up to 200g of cheese per person (for a main meal, if you're hungry). So, for a fondue for 4 people, you'd need about 800g of cheese, 400g Vacherin and 400g Gruyere. For the total weight of your cheese, you need about half the amount of a dry white wine - something cheap will do and that'll be about 400ml.
Get your fondue set and warm the pan, then add the wine. You can start things off on your hob if you're desperate to eat! Once the wine is just about to simmer, add your cheese which should be grated or coarsely chopped. The important thing is to keep things moving, so get a wooden spoon to help melt the cheese through. Once it's nice and smooth, add a dash of kirsch (a cherry brandy) but actually almost any liquer works well within reason. I should also say that before adding your cheese, you can rub your pot with a cut garlic clove, but I've never done it and I don't think I've missed out. Some recipes also suggest adding cornflour to help the mixture bind but it's not vital.
The thing that is vital, is not letting the cheese boil. You want to keep it at a constant temperature so keep an eye on that flame. At the end you'll end up with a little layer of 'toasted' cheese on the bottom, hopefully not burnt and you can eat it if you want to. At the end of the fondue, a Swiss tradition I'm told, is to add an egg to the pot and make a cheesey scrambled egg to scoop up with some bread. I've never done it but I'm sure it'd be great.
Another tip: if you have a fondue set and don't want to use methylated spirit in its liquid form, you can get these awesome firestar gel fuels online that do the job brilliantly. One gel is usually enough for a decent kilo fondue.
Don't have a fondue set? You can make up your fondue over a medium to low heat on the hob. Use a thick bottom pan and keep it hot at the table with a bain marie sort of thing.
Now, you're ready to dip! So, you can dip whatever you like, but chunks of good crusty bread, new potatoes, brocoli and cauliflower all work well. Raw carrots are also good and I tend to do a salad of rocket with a hefty vinegar dressing to cut through all that dairy. Some people like to have charcuterie as well, just go with what you fancy. Keep it simple or mix it up. One of my favourite things is to fry some courgette and red onion until just cooked and spoon some cheese over the top.
When you dip, be sure to get right to the bottom of the pot so you get the good cheese covering your dipper.
You get the idea, happy dipping!



Where to buy the cheese.

In the UK, Vacherin Fribourgeois is not easy to come by. One supplier is KaseSwiss who are based at Borough Market and Maltby Street. They also do wholesale to a range of shops around London so you can always contact them to enquire about the latest stocks. One thing you can guarantee is that any cheese from these guys, fondue or otherwise, will be amazing. They also promote the 'ECF movement' which is something I can always get on board with. It stands for eat cheese first, as in at the beginning of the meal.
If you can't get hold of Vacherin you can try a different regional recipe. Alternatively, you can use Emmental which is more readily available, just make sure it's a young one so it doesn't get too stringy when it melts.

ENJOY!!!

Market Goodness.

One of my great London loves, has to be the array of markets to be found here. In my 7 years (gosh, SEVEN) of living in the capital I have woken at hours unseen by many at the weekend to miss the crowds and purchase the finest wares for cooking up a treat (or several treats) over the weekend.
Partly, this love stemmed from my third year at university when I started a job at Borough Market and really got absorbed in the atmosphere, the friendly traders and the amazing food on offer there (and of course taking full advantage of traders discounts!). Now, Borough market has changed considerably since then (and so have I, now on the 9-5 conveyor belt) but its spirit remains and the culinary offerings there are as good as ever and this time of year is a great time to visit. As Christmas draws closer, it is so festive and you can wander around the market with your hessian tote bag filling up as fast as your wallet empties, all the while clutching a nice hot cup of mulled wine or, my personal favourite, spiced cider (watch out though, that stuff is strong!).
Much as my love for Borough still stands, I admit I find it increasingly difficult to visit as the hordes of tourists do much to marr the experience for me and make it hard to get any real shopping done. However, it is worth getting up especially early to miss the worst of the crowds and visit your favourite stalls, though this means getting there for about 8am. Of course, the other alternative for those lucky few who don't work on Fridays is to visit then but the market still gets busy so you need to choose your time well to make the most of what's on offer.

Recently, a favourite tour of mine has been to head to Borough, nice and early followed by a saunter down Bermondsey street to Bermondsey farmers market, followed by Maltby Street market. This works equally well if you do it the other way around! Don't forget to stop by Bermondsey antiques for a real treasure trove experience.

A bit about Maltby St. started almost two years ago, some of the traders from Borough market who all had their storage underneath the market until crossrail kicked in, found alternative storage places in the railway arches along Druid and Maltby streets, a stone's throw from Tower bridge road. Monmouth Coffee  opened up their roasting house (above) and realising that so many of the borough community were in the same spot, these traders have opened their arches up to the public on Saturday mornings and it's created somewhere really quite special that has grown more by word of mouth than anything else.
About 6 months ago, Borough Market did suffer some bad press as they took the decision to evict 7 traders, The Bermondsey Seven, for trading at Maltby Street. This article from the Evening standard in July of this year gives more informatuion. My understanding is that this dispute has now been resolved and the traders have been allowed back in time for Christmas, however, that it happened at all seems concerning and tells you something about how Borough is run.
Unlike Borough, Maltby Street isn't a market, rather it feels like a wonderful collective of market traders really working together to promote great produce and it's worth taking the chance to visit while you can. The traders will all take the time to talk with you about their wares and the passion for their products shines through in a way that's hard to come by, you're bound to make a few discoveries.
Bermondey Farmers market is also much less crowded and more relaxed and you can get all the essentials here, including a great choice of meat and veg and strolling from there along Bermondsey street, with some of London's best independent shops, cafes and restaurants is a really nice way to spend a lazy afternoon.