A beautiful clear day. Hooray after the week of very bad weather.
The guests were happy to be here and had a reasonable drive up the range. We ushered them into the lounge where the fire was softly burning. We started off with a sherry, remember sherry, it has been a while. We had small blue vein cheese biscuits with a toasted walnut on top. Jill E. said she hadn't had sherry for 30 years.
Then the french onion soup which had been slowly cooked on the fireplace stove over many days, was served in the lounge. We put a slice of toasted baguette topped with runny emmental cheese. Onion soup is always surprisingly sweet. One of the guests picked the star anise. Well spotted, Liz. Then we stepped outside into the warm sunshine.
The First Cheese course - Guests were arranged in teams of four. Each team had their own cheeseboard and accompaniments pots honey, tamarillo chutney, bread and crackers
The perfume of spearmint is almost exactly like the taste of the childhood spearmint lolly - a most pleasant sweet minty-ness. To kickoff the cheese guests were invited to smell the spearmint leaf and then to taste the super tangy yoghurt cheese.
Have you ever smelled clover flowers? They are in bloom right now. It is the most beautifully- perfumed flower. It has a super floral scent.
The fromage blanc has a little more sharpness than ricotta, and a finer texture. It is made with rennet, buttermilk, and creme fraiche. Sounds great, but it is very mild. Guests were invited to mix some finely minced preserved lemon and or some crystallised sambal. The accompanying aroma was the clover flowers with a spoon of local honey. This was warmed to only 45 degrees in the oven in a small porcelain pot. The warming of the pot really boosts the aroma. The honey from basil flowers. Beautiful honey. Some people wanted to buy honey.
The next aroma out of the oven was lemon - lemongrass, lemon peel and lemon juice. This accompanied the Jindi camembert and provolone piquante.
The provolone is a complex cheese, it has many flavours for such a pale form. It finishes with a kick.
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