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Pumpkin And Comté Cheese Fondue

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This week has been spent in the kitchen creating a whirl of Autumnal recipes, including this delicious Pumpkin and Comté Cheese Fondue. I tend to cook a lot more in these darker months, I guess the same as most people. It is a combination of wanting more home cooked comfort food whilst also having more time indoors.

Before I tell you about this recipe let’s begin by talking about cheese.. ah cheese cheese cheese. If I had to choose between chocolate and cheese it would be a hard choice but I would choose cheese. It took me a long time, maybe until my mid twenties to get out of the only eating mild to mature cheddar and well now I eat it ALL. In fact for the past few years I have even ordered a cheese board as a dessert on many occasions something I would have considered a bit crazy a while ago.

I couldn’t pick a favourite cheese, I enjoy them all from the soft and squishy to the hardest mature cheese. Cheese is definitely a comfort food for me. When Comté cheese got in touch and asked me to work on a recipe post with them I was fairly eager to say yes. I first tried Comté at a dinner some time back, was immediately hooked and was disappointed to not find it on sale locally. Since then stockists in my area have improved thankfully and it can also be ordered via Ocado and Waitrose..YAY. The cheese I am using in this recipe is a younger ( less mature ) cheese, it has a mild yet creamy taste and melts perfectly in my Pumpkin and Comté Cheese Fondue.

Want to learn a little about Comté?

For more than ten centuries, villagers of Jura Massif, Eastern France have lovingly crafted a unique and delicious cheese: Comté. This stunning region of mountains stretches between Jura and Doubs in the Franche-Comté region, and Ain in the Rhones-Alpes region, and is home to over 3,000 family farms dedicated to producing the highest quality of raw milk that is required to create Comté cheese. Today it is not only loved by millions of people in France, but all over world.

Some of my friends and fellow bloggers have been lucky enough to visit the area of France where the cheese is produced and enjoy sumptuous amounts of it. Read what Sarah from Maison Cupcake thought of the trip here and what Helen from Fuss Free Flavours thought here.

Moving onto my delicious Pumpkin and Comté Cheese Fondue. A lot of fondues use a mixture of cheese but mine was all Comté. A whopping 400g of it actually.. along with creme fraiche, herbs and some shallots and garlic with a generous slug of white wine. Baking it in the pumpkin is so simple and has many perks including no stirring, no watching the hob and most importantly no sticky fondue pan to wash up afterwards. Pumpkins are pretty much the symbol of Autumn as well as Halloween but they are worth so much more than carving and forgetting whilst they rot away. The seeds can be rubbed with spice and baked. The flesh makes incredible soups and well now this recipe. Seriously this is a MUST try.

pumpkin cheese fondue

 

Pumpkin Comté Cheese Fondue

You will need:

1 large pumpkin

400g grated Comté cheese

2 tbsp cornflour or plain flour

150g creme fraiche

40ml white wine

1 tbsp finely diced fresh rosemary

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 banana shallot, diced

pinch of sea salt

pinch of black pepper

To serve

Mixture of breads

Vegetables

Bacon (optional )

Preheat your oven to 180c.

Prepare your pumpkin, first carve out your lid, remove and scoop out the seeds and membrane. Reserve your seeds ( you can make some tasty healthy snacks later ). Pop the lid back on and put your pumpkin on a baking tray in the centre of the oven and bake for approximately 90 minutes.

Remove your pumpkin very carefully from the oven. Set the lid aside ( you can use the flesh from the lid in a soup ). Turn up the heat to 220c. Now add your ingredients to the Pumpkin starting with your Comté Cheese and then everything else in whichever order you prefer.  Return to the oven and bake for a further 40 minutes. Whilst your fondue is bubbling away you can prepare your accompaniments. You could really use anything you like to dip in the molten cheese, small potatoes work well as does crusty bread. I used a combination of squares of focaccia to pop in on skewers and toasted artisan bread which I then spread with the fondue and served with bacon.

pumpkin cheese fondue

 

Pumpkin And Comté Cheese Fondue

Pumpkin And Comté Cheese Fondue

 

 

 

I’ll leave you with one final tip, if you find you have made more fondue than required or even if there is only the smallest amount remaining get a spoon and scoop any remaining fondue and pumpkin flesh, pop in a pan with vegetable stock and bring to a simmer before pureeing with a hand blender. Gorgeous cheesy pumpkin soup – the very best of leftover lunches.

Here are some more recipes that feature Comté, why not give them all a whirl?

Comte Baked Eggs from Kavey Eats

Comte Cheese and Potato Rosti from Foodie Quine

Comte Cheese And Haggis Toastie

And more pumpkin ideas here

*This post has been commissioned by Comté Cheese and I was compensated for my time.

 

Cooking In The Kitchen.. Having fun – Puff Pastry

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Sometimes when cooking with children it’s not about what you actually cook its just about the experience..the mess..the textures.

Last week when Izzy asked to cook I was tired and we didn’t have many ingredients to bake cakes or bread so I was a bit stuck.

I scrabbled about in the fridge for ideas and found a roll of readymade puff pastry, a lump of mature cheddar and some tomato relish.

Bingo.

We made cheese and tomato puffs..we also had some pastry leftover so we made some brown sugar strips and a cheeky Nutella puff or two.

Izzy loved cutting out the shapes and sprinkling on the cheese and a dollop of relish ..

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Topping with a bit more pastry…

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And brushing on some beaten egg..

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They looked so good..

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Finding a bit of relish.. What a surprise..

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And of course munching them all..

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Fun to make and easy to eat – perfect toddler food. I was surprised by how much Izzy could do by herself. Lately I’m asking her to do little kitchen tasks like buttering bread and she really enjoys it and its clearly helping her feel more confident when cooking.

COOKING WITH KIDS

Cheese and Potato Bake

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After a few days away last week I returned home to a sack of potatoes which I really needed to use up and it just so happens I’ve had such a craving for cheese and potato pie. I really didn’t fancy the fuss of making pastry tonight and also I am currently on strict orders to take it easy so I made something quick and simple which my mum made a lot when I was growing up – cheese and potato bake. I adapted it from the basic recipe my mum passed on and it was delicious.

Cheese and Potato Bake

8/9 medium sized potatoes (peeled and diced)
1 red onion (diced)
200g mature cheddar (grated)
75ml of milk
25ml of single cream
1tsp of crushed peppercorns
2 tbsp of butter
1tbsp of herbs (your choice – I used rosemary & thyme)

Preheat your oven to gas mark 4.
Put your potatoes in a pan of boiling water and simmer for 15-20 minutes until cooked through and drain.
Sauté your onions in a tbsp of butter until soft. Heat your milk in a small pan or microwave and add to your potatoes, butter, pepper and cream and mash thoroughly. Mix in your onions and 150g of cheddar along with your herbs and spoon it in to a cazuela or large ovenproof dish, top with remaining grated cheese, some sliced tomato and a few basil leaves for decoration and bake for 25-30 minutes.

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Cheese and Potato Bake

This was a really comforting, tasty meal. Fairly cheap to make and really quick and easy.

I served this with tinned chopped tomatoes and bacon – yum.

This fed 1 hungry pregnant lady, 1 hungry 6ft man and 1 hungry energetic toddler with a chunk leftover for someone’s (mine) lunch tomorrow.

Izzy enjoyed 🙂

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Let me know if you try it 😉

Hide the veggies pasta sauce

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My daughter will eat pretty much anything. I know I’m lucky and many of my friends and family really struggle with what their toddlers will or won’t eat. I am also sensible enough to realise this may not last forever and next month she may be as picky as picky can be.

Today I was making up a pasta sauce for my OH to take to work and decided to make up a batch for Izzy at the same time. Now as I said at this moment I don’t have any problems with getting her to eat veg but this is a sure fire way of knowing that she gets everything she needs.

So here we have a super easy but tasty tomato sauce which can be whipped up in 5 minutes and frozen if necessary.

You will need:

A carton of passata (500g)
A large handful of baby spinach leaves
2 handfuls of frozen broccoli ( steamed or boiled)
1 sweet potato ( diced
50g of cheese (grated)
1 knob of butter
1 tbsp of chopped parsley

Boil/steam your broccoli and sweet potato and set aside.
Sauté your spinach in butter until soft, add your passata, broccoli, sweet potato, cheese and parsley. Warm through and use a hand blender to thoroughly blend all ingredients.

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This made enough to feed my hungry man and toddler with another leftover for another meal. Next time I’ll definitely make double and freeze a batch.

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Feeding the family – cheese, bacon and broccoli gnocchi bake

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Sometimes it’s hard to work out what to cook that we can all eat. For the most part these days Izzy eats the same food as us. It means that I have to think twice about what I put in our food.. Throwing in handful of dried chilli flakes may not be the right thing to do anymore. If I can I will make the same meal but in a separate pot/pan so that if needs be ours can have a little extra spice.

I am going to try to post some recipes occasionally of meals which are entirely suitable for ALL the family. The following is one of them. I only started using Gnocchi at home about a year ago, it was one of those ingredients that I just never thought to base a dish around. Now I love it. A lot. I make a tomato based gnocchi bake at least once a month and we all enjoy it – it’s one of Izzys favourites.
You can find the recipe here: www.munchiesandmunchkins.com/2012/09/25/eating-well-on-a-budget-simple-suppers/

Today’s recipe came about from wanting to get Izzy eating more broccoli. I know it’s one of those vegetables which children can begin to get fussy about so I’m trying to stop that from happening.

So anyway here is what you will need:

1 500g pack of Gnocchi – I use Il pasteio ( around 70p at Asda)
1 – 1/2 pints of prepared cheese sauce ( recipe link here ) I didn’t measure!
A squirt of garlic paste or crushed garlic clove
3 rashers of smoked bacon ( fat removed and diced)
2-3 handfuls of cooked roughly chopped broccoli
1 cup of breadcrumbs ( I blend mine with herbs and freeze ready for such dishes)
1 tbsp of chopped rosemary ( fresh or dried)
Pepper

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Cook your gnocchi as per packet instructions and drain. Brown your bacon with the garlic and set aside. In an ovenproof dish ( I use a large cazuela) mix your gnocchi, bacon, herbs and broccoli together before pouring over your cheese sauce ensuring everything is covered then sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and cover with breadcrumbs. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 20-25 mins until golden and crispy on top.

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Serve with salad. Delicious.

This went down a storm with all of us. Tasty and comforting. Izzy certainly approved.

Quesadillas – Simple Suppers #3

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Have you ever made or eaten a quesadilla? They are very similar to a fajita and incredibly tasty. It pretty much consists of two tortilla wraps filled with ingredients of your choice ( always include cheese) and cooked on either side – similar to a toastie.

I saw a photo on Pinterest a while back and all it said underneath was chicken, cheese and pineapple quesadilla. My mouth watered. Time went by as it tends to do and I forgot about this but when having a recent cupboard sort out I found a tin of pineapple rings and it flashed into mind. I had half a cooked chicken leftover from the previous day and a few small different flavoured chunks of cheese lurking in my fridge. It was decided.

You will need:

Tortilla wraps ( as many as you want to eat or share with lucky loved ones)
Pineapple ( fresh or tinned is fine)
Cooked shredded/torn chicken
Cheese ( I used a mixture of mild&mature cheddar and Red Leicester)
Butter

Firstly chop your pineapple into small pieces and grate your cheese. Place a small knob of butter into a frying pan and sauté your pineapple until they begin to caramelise- yum.

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Add your chicken and any other ingredients you wish to add – I finely chopped a banana chilli for some extra zing- and heat throughout. If you have a griddle pan get it on the heat ( if not simply use a frying pan) and when very hot quickly toast your tortillas on both sides and place on a plate. Now place 1 tortilla wrap in griddle pan put a big spoonful or two of your chicken/pineapple mix into the middle, top with cheese and a teeny squirt of BBQ sauce and place a second tortilla firmly on top.

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After a minute or so be brave and flip it over so both tortillas are nicely browned. A griddle pan makes a huge difference to the appearance but probably none to taste. Repeat until you have used up all your wraps/filling.

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This simple supper is delicious. It looks like you made an effort but is easy peasy and can be adapted to use up any leftovers you may have.

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Bon appetit

🙂

The benefits of being a disorganised chef

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When it comes to my kitchen I am pretty disorganised, even more so since having Izzy over a year ago. I blame not having enough cupboard space to be properly organised but really I’m just not very good at it. This week my forgetfulness and general disorder of my cupboards has caused me to not be able to cook three meals/recipes that I wanted to but twice it meant I had to come up with something else to make and resulted in two very lovely dishes. So there is one benefit of being disorganised.

On Tuesday I had a craving for jam tarts..not to eat them but I craved making them. Sound weird to you? I lovingly made my shortcrust pastry from scratch ( it will shock you but this was my first time making it since I was young I normally cheat and buy ready made) and even rolled it and cut into discs (very ragged discs since I don’t seem to have a round pastry cutter) before reaching into the depths of a crowded cupboard to pull out my jam which was in fact a jar of plum sauce.. Frustrating and by this point I really wanted a jam tart. Since it was getting late neither of us fancied a trip to the shops so a quick scan of what ingredients I had resulted in me making custard tarts. They were really tasty and I’d never made them before so it was fun.

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This morning I started to put ingredients together to make a slow cooked beef stew, again I was missing a crucial ingredient (chopped tomatoes) I always always have a zillion tins of this in my cupboard but it seems they finally ran dry. Around the same time my OH fancied waffles .. I also thought hmmm that would be nice and pulled out my eggs and milk before realising I’d run out of flour. Disappointed and we had to make do with egg on toast.. Not quite the same.

So anyway we get to this evening and as I don’t have my beef stew I decided to try out an idea I saw on Pinterest some time ago for chicken, cheese and pineapple quesadillas.

Wow they were so good. I didn’t have a recipe to go by so I just went with what I had and it turned out beautifully.

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So I guess there are some benefits to being a little ditsy with the shopping lists and having cluttered cupboards as we had two new dishes to try which were both luckily very good!
This can’t quite make up for the disappointment I felt when getting ready tonight to prep my pork shoulder for pulled pork tomorrow and realising I’d forgotten not one or two but 3 ingredients. It’s been one of those weeks.

December sees a brand new me, well in my kitchen at least. My lovely man is working on a pantry for me and then I will have no excuse. Clutter no more. Any helpful tips for kitchen organisation will be gratefully accepted.

My “pantry” as it looks right now .. I will report back x

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Eating well on a budget- simple suppers

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The nights are getting colder and I want to create more warm, inviting dinners but without spending a fortune. I will try to post recipes as and when I use them to give you some tips for cheap and cheerful meals that all the family can enjoy.

Tomato and bacon gnocchi bake

500g Gnocchi – I use Il Pastaio Gnocchi which is a bargain 78p in Asda
400ml Passata – I typically use the value range from Sainsburys or Asda which is around 30p.
4 or 5 rashers of smoked bacon diced- roughly £1.50
75g of cheddar grated – approx £1
2 garlic cloves diced finely -approx 20p
1 glug of Olive oil -from cupboard
Any fresh herbs you have (dried at a push)
Sea salt
Black pepper

Cook gnocchi to packet instructions and set aside.
Heat olive oil in a small cazuela or ovenproof pan and sauté garlic and bacon until bacon is golden, add your gnocchi and passata. Stir well adding your herbs and season. Sprinkle over grated cheese and place in your oven for 15 minutes until golden on top and bubbling.

Serve with a large leafy salad.

Serves 2 hungry adults with a little leftover.

A beautiful tasty meal for around £4.

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Foodies heaven at The Big Feastival

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Do you know when have such a good (and tasty) time that you don’t really know where to start explaining it? This is what The Big Feastival was for me …ok so you all know I’m a food nerd but wowzer this food/music festival has just fuelled my foodie passion and I really really hope at some point I will be able to do food related work full time – eating, writing, cooking what could be better?

I was Very Very lucky to receive an invite to the perfect festival combo .. Gastronomical delights and top tunes organised by the legendary Jamie Oliver and cool cat Alex James. The invite came just the day before the festival kicked off so an incredibly busy day of packing and hotel hunting and we were off to beautiful Oxfordshire and Alex’s farm where he makes his wonderful cheese.

On arrival at the festival site we were greeted at the gates with free biscuits from Fudges bakery..what better welcome hey? I’ll explain more about Fudges later as there products are so darn good. The first few hours were spent exploring the site, trying samples of the best food in Oxfordshire as well as treating ourselves to Barbacoas Pulled pork (for Andrew) and The cinnamon clubs Tandoori spiced black leg chicken kathi roll with green coriander chutney for me ..bit of a mouthful but extremely tasty.

Dishes on offer from The Cinnamon Club:

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We then went on to watch our first chefs demonstration of the day at The Big Kitchen sponsored by Electrolux which was none other than Jamie Oliver and the marvellous, flirtatious Gennaro Contaldo. It was incredible to watch some talented chefs up close and to see their obvious passion for what they do. The demonstration was hilarious as the duo have such a cheeky bantering friendship and we were even lucky enough to get a pic with Gennaro:

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The rest of the day was spent eating more samples of delicious cheeses and mouthwatering truffle oils and going to more demos including Mark Sargeant who is a really fun chef to watch as well as another by Gennaro Contaldo and Jamie Oliver.

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Although there was music on the main stage all day long including The Noisettes and Paloma Faith it was pretty much just background noise for us as our real focus was on the food but it did create a great atmosphere and there was a large crowd at the main stage all day long. We finished off the evening with some more food sharing Porchetta and polenta chips from Jamie’s Italian and Rajasthani style Herdwick lamb and corn curry with pilau rice from The Cinnamon Club..both were incredibly good.

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We also met Valentine Warner but unfortunately arrived just a little too late for his demo 🙁

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We decided to call it a night then as Izzy was getting tired and trundled on back to our b&b in Bampton.. Now don’t go thinking we are too posh to camp! We would have loved to but it was full so a b&b it was!

The next day we headed to the site as it opened to make the most of the beautiful day. I think we somehow managed a very impressive amount of freebies and samples without even trying!

We tried so many different pies from The Piglet Pantry (who sell award winning pies don’t ya know..)And they were all so good that trying to decide which ones to buy was very difficult! We somehow managed and Andrew had a chilli n cheese combo whilst I tried the gammon and leek.. Both delicious. We bought seasalt chocolate from Seed and Bean which was delicious and we also tried seasalt fudge – can you see a theme? Ha. We had (well I had) cocktails from Vestal Vodka and Makers whisky which were beautiful and we tried crab from Cafe Mor .. Which is a big thing for non seafood eaters like us but they were from Pembrokeshire and voted best street food of the year so it would have been rude not to try and you know what it was pretty nice!

For all you non foodies out there the second day did include some pretty spectacular music..Texas and Razorlight to name just two and also lots n lots for the kiddies including a dance session with Adam Garcia! I do believe more of the Adam Garcia fans were of the adult female kind than the children but it was a good excuse hey.

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Anyway back to the food and possibly the high point of the festival for me as we strolled down the field we saw a bright yellow Robin Reliant and a few photographers clustered around.. Nosy as always we stopped to look and with remarkably good timing as five minutes later around a few hundred other people joined us but you know what I was right at the front ..yay for an impromptu cooking demo by Jamie Oliver. Woop. It was fabulous to be up close and watching the man in action literally within splatter distance of the food. He was a cheeky charmer and had the crowd eating out of his hand especially when he began to give out plates of the food. I was lucky enough to get a falafel wrap passed to me directly and Andrew had a bowl of the veggie curry. Both were obviously amazing.

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The last two demos we saw were by Paul Young ( master chocolatier) and The Weber Grill academy. The chocolate ganache created by Paul was delicious and I picked up lots of tips ready for my first attempt at making chocolates. He also had a lovely pic with Izzy:

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The Weber demo was also really interesting and wow we really want a Weber now. Beer can chicken and blackened peppers were on the menu and again lots of BBQ tips.

I could probably talk for a few thousand more words about the food we ate and what we saw at this wonderful weekend but I’d probably start to bore you so I’ll leave you with a brief summary of my favourite new food/drink producers:

Drinks from……

Vestal Vodka – beautiful, crisp and pure vodka cocktails. Seriously good.
Samuelsons of Witney – proper strong lemonade. I tried sparkling blackberry and it was tongue tingling.
Scheckters – 100% natural organic energy drinks. Kinda like redbull but without all the rubbish they pump into it. Tasted pretty nice too.
Eager – fruit juices for adults and kids which are healthy and taste good too. I hope these are available to buy readily in a few months for Izzy.

Food from..

Fudges biscuit makers- ahh these were incredible. We have had the crackers with cheese to snack on,the biscuits dipped in tea and the straws well whenever we feel like it 🙂
The English Provender Co – these chutneys/condiments aren’t new to me as they are stocked in all major supermarkets but I did try some new flavours from them which I enjoyed.
Fair&Square chocolate brownies – we had a seasalt brownie which was scrummy.
Isles of Scilly handmade fudge – this fudge was probably the best I’ve tasted. I’ve tried lots.
Karantania Deli – delicious bakery bits.. I tried a butternut squash/feta combo and it was dreamy. Their food is also incredibly pretty.
Seed&Bean – extra dark chocolate. The Cornish seasalt is addictive.
Greedy Goat icecream – guilt free goats milk ice cream.. I tried basil and lemon. Refreshing and different.
The flour bin – now I am yet to try using the flour but I tried the bread made from the flour and it was amazing and I’ve smelt the malty goodness of the flour so I’m excited to try!

There were so many more producers and stalls that we loved but these were our favourites and included food we actually bought rather than samples.

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All in all it was an amazing weekend and one I hope to repeat next year 🙂

Early bird tickets are on sale now: The Big Feastival

The recipe challenge week 3. Campsite cooking

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Ok so for the third week of my recipe challenge I was at the absolutely amazing and fantastic Camp Bestival. I was undeterred from my challenge and although my recipe is far from unique and maybe just a slight variant on dishes I have cooked previously I think the fact that I cooked it on an old gas camping stove just outside my tent gains me extra points yes?

Omelette/frittata camping combo:

8/9 cooked boiled potatoes ( I took mine already cooked to the festival in a Tupperware box)
3 eggs
2 inch chunk of chorizo diced
1/2 large red onion
50g of cheese
Sichuan peppercorns & smoked sea salt ( entirely optional but also entirely yummy)
Large frying pan ( if camping line with foil to ease washing up. Yes lazy.)
Spray oil

I lined my pan with foil and sprayed some olive oil 1cal spray on top, I use this when camping as easier and less likely to leak. Cook the chorizo, onions and potatoes until soft and tender, in a small cup beat 3 eggs and pour over the cooked mixture and season. When the egg has almost set sprinkle over some chopped cheese ( I used mature cheddar) and a little more pepper and serve when completely set. Cut into slices and serve with rocket leaves.

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Hope you enjoy and remember camping cooking doesn’t have to be just baked beans and bacon.