Cheesanuary

Comfort food cheese dishes, for cold dark days...

It has at last started to feel proper cold. As in “feels like -6 cold” with biting north easterlies and hard frosts. And when it isn’t icy bright cold, the days are gloomy and drear and the mud situation gets so out of control I find myself unable to stride out on my daily constitutional in quite the same way and find myself slithering and squelching around the fields instead. I am told I need walking poles. I probably do….

It sounds obvious, but as The Media often likes to tell us otherwise in New Year New You January it is worth saying, cold weather in the darkest months of the year calls for cold weather food. Most sensible cuisines (especially the ones Diana Henry references in her brilliant Roast Figs, Sugar Snow ) acknowledge this. This is not the time for denial and diets. This is the time of year we need to be kind to ourselves and heat ourselves from the inside out. It is when proper beige comfort food is a sustaining necessity, not an indulgence. And if, for balance, you want to cut through or supplement the richness (I find I frequently do), then the season has a wealth of colourful, sharper tasting foods to do so – all the citruses (Seville and blood oranges, mandarins – preserving these right now in a warm kitchen is one of the best ways to thumb your nose at the grey outside), forced rhubarb and pomegranates, plus all the greens – the bitter ones from Italy, as well as our home grown ones – kalettes and Brussels sprouts on stalks, sprout tops still, January King cabbages as well as the reliable red, the early purple sprouting broccoli. I could go on.

But back to comfort and what I want most of all is cheese. Most of my household does. It sometimes feels as though the month revolves around cheese purchasing from various cheesemongers and markets. I just deleted a standard conversation we have about this in our house as it made me feel too exposed, but there is a lot of cheese talk. We have our staples, there is pretty much always some sort of soft cheese left out for snacking purposes, both types of curds to add as a garnish for soups and poutines and good melting cheeses for gratins, toasties, rarebits and of course fondue.

Using every scrap up is very important as good cheese is not cheap and I don’t want to waste a morsel. I especially want to avoid the scenario of heels of cheese languishing in a fridge container, slowly dessicating, often with a sheen of sweat. These end up being too hard to grate or slice and can get a bit whiffy too. Minimising the potential waste here is where the pressure cooker can come in handy.

When I was writing Modern Pressure Cooking and thinking about minestrone and the idea about saving rinds to enhance soups, it occurred to me that I should try applying the same process to other cheeses too – and perhaps take it further and make a separate stock. After a few conversations with various cheesemongers and my friend Jenny Linford (who is the host of the brilliant A Slice of Cheese podcast) about the general edibility of cheese rinds, I experimented. And it worked and I liked the results. Ever since I have saved my cheese rinds, transferring them to the freezer as soon as I’ve got as much cheese from them as I can get. Then when I have enough, I pressure cook them. The pressure cooker helps any remaining cheese to dissolve into the liquid and is really effective at extracting flavour from the rind.

Cheese Stock

Ingredients: Keep it simple! I sometimes make it with just cheese and garlic – this is one of the best uses for those fiddly little centre cloves, along with the papery skins too. Anything else is optional. If I have them, I will add trimmings from onions and leeks, pumpkin or squash skin for sweetness (works better than carrot, not sure why, nuttiness?), some celery leaf. Jerusalem artichokes add savouriness, as well as a smoky earthiness. Herbs – thyme, parsley and bay out of preference. They are the most neutral if you aren’t sure what the end use of your stock is going to be.  

The method: Use a ratio of around 1:5. So for 100g rinds and trimmings, use 500ml water. Cook at high pressure for half an hour, natural release. The resulting broth will not be overwhelmingly cheesy – and by this I mean it won’t be TOO cheesy. It will hopefully achieve a goldilocks standard of cheesiness. (It may be too cheesy if the rinds are past their best – if you want to ensure they are going to be in a good condition for stock, you can trim your cheese as soon as you buy it and put the rinds straight into the freezer).

Strain the stock and discard the solids. Using it while hot will give you a rich, creamy, cheese flavoured liquor which can be used to make so many things – combine with other stocks for risotto or absorption method pasta (replace some of the water when making mac n cheese!), and add to béchamel for cauliflower cheese or other creamy gratins. If you don’t want to use it straight away, after straining, cooling and chilling you will find it separates into a clear broth with a thick head of fat. Both will have a good flavour and the fat can be used in all kinds of things in place of butter.

A couple of soup ideas: this first one uses the strained broth and can feel January good for you but is still plenty rich. Pour back into your pressure cooker, add some sliced garlic cloves, a handful of European style egg noodles and some shredded greens. Season, then bring up to high pressure. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for a minute, fast release and dress with a little lemon, lime or Seville orange juice before eating.

This is much heartier. Use freshly made stock, strained but not chilled - simply add a pile of sliced potatoes, 2 leeks and half a white shredded cabbage along with a bit of extra garlic and a glug of white wine or cider. Cook for 2 mins HP, natural release, then stir in some creme fraiche if you want it extra creamy and some extra cheese to melt on top.

That was the rinds, now onto cheese proper.

A gratin is a great way of using up cheese if you find you have a surplus (or simply want to make way for more). The recipe below used up 3 or 4 types of cheese – hard cheeses, but you could just take a large soft cheese (a reblochon or a camembert or if you are feeling very flash, a Baron Bigod) slice it and lay it over the top. I also use this kind of gratin as a receptacle for any odds and ends which would work well. The one photographed had a tray of pigs in blankets in lieu of the bacon I list below (because who has a tray of pigs in blankets to use up?), as well as a couple of endive and a wedge of red cabbage.

Tartiflette inspired cheese and potato gratin.

1 tbsp olive oil

150g bacon, diced

2 red onions, cut into wedges

¼ red or green cabbage, cut into slim wedges (optional)

2 endive, trimmed and halved lengthways (optional)

15g butter (or fat from cheese stock if you have some)

400g potatoes, unpeeled, diced

A few mushrooms, halved

4 garlic cloves, grated

150ml white wine

A large sprig thyme

2 tsp Dijon mustard

2 leeks, thickly sliced

2 tbsp crème fraiche (or parmesan cream* if you have it)

250g cheese, grated (I used a mixture of Ogelshield, cheddar, Comte and fior delle alpi)

Heat your pressure cooker and add the olive oil. Add the bacon and fry until crisp and until it has rendered out some fat. Remove from your cooker with a slotted spoon. Add the onions, the cabbage and endive if using and sear on all sides. Melt in the butter or cheese fat and stir – it should help start the deglazing process. Stir in the potatoes, mushrooms and garlic, then pour in the white wine. As the wine bubbles, stir to thoroughly deglaze. Season with salt and pepper.

Stir in the thyme leaves and mustard, then check the liquid - if you think it is too thick (possible because of the mustard) add a little water or more wine to thin it. But be sparing! Close the lid and bring up to high pressure. Cook for 2 minutes, then fast release. Give another stir, then return the bacon to the cooker. Add the leeks, bring up to high pressure and immediately remove from the heat and fast release. Add the crème fraiche and half the cheese. Stir on a low heat to gently melt the cheese.

At this point you have  options. You can either transfer everything to an oven proof dish, sprinkle over the cheese and put under a hot grill. Or, if you have an air fryer lid or your pressure cooker will fit under your grill, you can sprinkle with cheese and brown (make sure if you are putting a pressure cooker under a grill, you wrap the handles well in foil). Or, you can simply sprinkle with the cheese, replace the lid and leave for it to gently melt, fondue style, over the vegetables.

I served with a big pile of spring greens. These are always so cheap and so good if not overcooked. 500g will cost you between 75-80p in the supermarkets at the moment. A lot cheaper than kale, chard and even some of the cabbages.

I just wash, season, put in the pressure cooker with a splash of water and cook for the time it takes to come up to high pressure. Fast release and they’re done.

Other things you can add cheese to: try the savoury bread pudding recipe I wrote about here

And as we are talking a lot about leftovers today, you might like to know that Sue Quinn’s book on the subject, Second Helpings is now out, and I can heartily recommend it - it takes a very sensible dish led approach which I think works much better than an ingredient led one.

And Finally….

Here are some of the things I’ve cooked in my pressure cooker these past weeks. Brussels sprouts seem to feature a lot….remember I would love to hear what you are cooking too.

It has been a season of soups and dals, that is for sure – lost count of those!

Stock, soup and curry with the remains of the capon.

Pressure cooker hash with leftover root vegetables, Brussels sprouts and meat.

Birria out of the freezer and cooked pressure roasted Brussels sprouts to add to a birria flavoured poutine with chip shop chips.

Shepherd’s pie, making both filling and potato in the pressure cooker at the same time.

So many pots of beans.

I don’t know how many pasta dishes.

A couple of risottos

Joloff rice.

Brown rice, quinoa, bulgar wheat all as sides.

Greens, daily.

Pressure roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts (again!) for dippers for the Christmas day fondue

A chicken meatball tagine with pressure roasted carrots, chard with almonds and lemon and couscous.

Sausage and lentil casserole (a staple)

Seared and pressure cooked endive to make endive gratin (my favourite thing in the world).

This sprouting broccoli dish – for a solo supper on the sofa last night when Adam and Shariq wanted eggs and I didn’t. Just steamed with a little garlic (zero minutes pressure, fast release) and dressed with Seville orange juice and peanut rayu.

* parmesan cream is a jarred concoction which tastes like posh primula and contains

just parmesan, butter and salt.