Welcome to a new week at the SIMMER blog! What do we have for you today? Bone-in joints of meat? Deep delicious cakery? Elegantly plated pastry extravaganzas?
Well, no. It's cheese and crackers. But: cheese and crackers the likes of which you have not previously seen.
This is a cheese made with Guinness (ha! snuck it in there yet again!), basically a cheddar. Very cool visually, though a pain in the you-know-what to cut in any way that even vaguely approximates a square. This turned out very different from how I pictured it in my head, and yet... it was pretty much perfect, so who could get fussy about that?
Cheddar atop caramelized onions atop homemade crackers. And for the extra bonus round points, there was just a wee smidge of Guinness in the onions too.
More about the crackers tomorrow. In the meantime, if you ever buy this cheese and want to cut it in square-ish shapes, here's what you need to know that I didn't initially: you will have FAR more success cutting against the grain. So, if you buy a triangle-shaped wedge, don't try to cut from one of the long sides. Tip it on its side and cut off an entire triangle, then square that off, and use the scraps for something else. Like, say, a fondue?
What's the brand on the cheese? It reminds me of the Cahill Porter Cheddar (merely okay, a bit overrated) in that it has a similar appearance.
Posted by: Russ Carr | April 20, 2009 at 10:50 AM
Pretty sure it's the Cahill. Yeah, for straight-up cheese-eating I'd prefer other cheddars, but for visual impact it takes the prize. Or you go with the sage derby, which is white/green instead of tan/brown.
Posted by: jael | April 20, 2009 at 12:25 PM